A Chevalley formula in equivariant \(K\)-theory (Q876410)

Let \(G\) be a connected and simply connected complex semi-simple group, and let \(B\) be a Borel subgroup of \(G\) and \(H\) a Cartan subgroup of \(B\). Let \(X\) denote the flag variety \(G/B\) with the \(H\)-action by multiplication on the left. The aim of this paper is to give a formula (called a Chevalley formula) for the product of a complex line bundle and a Schubert class in the \(H\)-equivariant \(K\)-theory \(K(H, X)\) of \(X\). In the present case the Grothendieck group of \(H\)-equivariant complex vector bundles over \(X\) is isomorphic to that of \(H\)-equivariant coherent sheaves on \(X\), so that it is understood that \(K(H, X)\) represents these two groups which are identified. Hence one sees that \(K(H, X)\) has two kinds of canonical classes \([{\mathcal{L}}^X_\lambda]^H\) and \([{\mathcal{O}}_{\overline{X}_w}]^H\) where \(\lambda \in X(H)\) the group of characters of \(H\) and \(w \in W=N_G(H)/H\) the Weyl group of \(G\), which are defined in its respective underlying Grothendieck groups. Here \({\mathcal{L}}^X_\lambda\) denotes the associated line bundle to the principal \(B\)-bundle \(G \to X\) where \(B\) acts on \(G\) through the natural extension of \(\lambda\) to \(B\), and \({\mathcal{O}}_{\overline{X}_w}\) denotes the structure sheaf of the Schubert variety \(\overline{X}_w\) obtained by using the Bruhat decomposition of \(G=\bigsqcup_{w \in W}BwB\) where \(\overline{X}_w\) is the closure of the \(B\)-orbit of \(w \in W\) (in the Zariski topology). Letting \(R(H)\) denote the ring of complex representations of \(H\), it is known that the classes \(\{ [{\mathcal{O}}_{\overline{X}_w}]^H : w \in W \}\) form an \(R(H)\)-basis of \(K(H, X)\) and on the other hand the classes \(\{ [{\mathcal{L}}^X_\lambda]^H : \lambda \in X(H) \}\) generate \(K(H, X)\) as an \(R(H)\)-algebra. From this it follows that the product \([{\mathcal{L}}^X_\lambda]^H[{\mathcal{O}}_{\overline{X}_w}]^H\) can be written in the form \[ [{\mathcal{L}}^X_\lambda]^H[{\mathcal{O}}_{\overline{X}_w}]^H=\sum_{v \in W} q^\lambda_{w, v}[{\mathcal{O}}_{\overline{X}_v}]^H \] where \(q^\lambda_{w, v} \in R(H)\). The main result (Theorem 4) gives an algorithm to compute these coefficients \(q^\lambda_{w, v}\). The proof uses the \(H\)-equivariant \(K\)-theory of a Bott-Samelson variety \(\Gamma\). By observing restrictions to fixed points in equivariant \(K\)-theory, the author obtains a decomposition of the class \([{\mathcal{L}}^\Gamma_\lambda]^H\) in its \(R(H)\)-basis. This enables one to deduce the required formula via a standard map from \(\Gamma\) to \(X\).