Rationally smooth Schubert varieties and inversion hyperplane arrangements (Q887317)

Let \(W\) be a finite Weyl group with generating set \(S\) and root system \(R\). Let \(X(w)\) be a Schubert variety indexed by \(w \in W\). The Schubert variety \(X(w)\) is rationally smooth if and only if the Poincaré polynomial \(P_w(q)\) is palindromic. An element \(w \in W\) is said to be rationally smooth if this condition is satisfied. Let \(V\) be the ambient Euclidean space containing \(R\). Identify \(V\) and \(V^\ast\) using the Euclidean form. Let \(R^+\) and \(R^-\) denote the positive and negative root sets of \(R\), respectively. The inversion set of \(w \in W\) is defined to be \(I(w) = \{\alpha \in R^+ : w^{-1}\alpha \in R^-\}\). The inversion hyperplane arrangement of \(w\) is \(\mathcal{I} = \bigcup_{\alpha \in I(w)} \text{ker} \, \alpha\) in \(V\). The main result of the paper is the following: Theorem. Let \(W\) be a finite Weyl group. An element \(w \in W \) is rationally smooth if and only if the inversion hyperplane arrangement \(\mathcal{I}(w)\) is free with coexponents \(d_1, \dots, d_l\) and if the product \(\prod_i(1 +d_i)\) is equal to the size of the Bruhat interval \([e, w]\). Furthermore, if \(w\) is rationally smooth then the coexponents \(d_1, \dots, d_l\) are equal to the exponents of \(w\).