Sign variation, the Grassmannian, and total positivity

DOI10.1016/J.JCTA.2016.08.003MaRDI QIDQ507810zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Steven N. Karp

Publication date 9 February 2017

Published in Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Series A (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05622

zbMATH Keywords

amplituhedronGrassmann polytopeoriented matroidpositroidsign variationtotal positivitytotally nonnegative Grassmannian

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Combinatorial aspects of matroids and geometric lattices (05B35) Grassmannians, Schubert varieties, flag manifolds (14M15) Matroids in convex geometry (realizations in the context of convex polytopes, convexity in combinatorial structures, etc.) (52B40)

Abstract: The totally nonnegative Grassmannian is the set of k-dimensional subspaces V of R^n whose nonzero Pluecker coordinates all have the same sign. Gantmakher and Krein (1950) and Schoenberg and Whitney (1951) independently showed that V is totally nonnegative iff every vector in V, when viewed as a sequence of n numbers and ignoring any zeros, changes sign at most k-1 times. We generalize this result from the totally nonnegative Grassmannian to the entire Grassmannian, showing that if V is generic (i.e. has no zero Pluecker coordinates), then the vectors in V change sign at most m times iff certain sequences of Pluecker coordinates of V change sign at most m-k+1 times. We also give an algorithm which, given a non-generic V whose vectors change sign at most m times, perturbs V into a generic subspace whose vectors also change sign at most m times. We deduce that among all V whose vectors change sign at most m times, the generic subspaces are dense. These results generalize to oriented matroids. As an application of our results, we characterize when a generalized amplituhedron construction, in the sense of Arkani-Hamed and Trnka (2013), is well defined. We also give two ways of obtaining the positroid cell of each V in the totally nonnegative Grassmannian from the sign patterns of vectors in V.

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Cited in

(30)

• Positive geometries and canonical forms
• Some more amplituhedra are contractible
• The \(m=1\) amplituhedron and cyclic hyperplane arrangements
• Positively hyperbolic varieties, tropicalization, and positroids
• Positive configuration space
• Edge vectors on plabic networks in the disk and amalgamation of totally non-negative Grassmannians
• On two notions of total positivity for partial flag varieties
• Gradient flows, adjoint orbits, and the topology of totally nonnegative flag varieties
• Boundary measurement and sign variation in real projective space
• Sign variation, the Grassmannian, and total positivity
• Variations on a theme of Kasteleyn, with application to the totally nonnegative Grassmannian
• Bennequin’s inequality and the positivity of the signature
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1254195 (Why is no real title available?)
• Total nonnegativity and stable polynomials
• Defining amplituhedra and Grassmann polytopes
• Moment curves and cyclic symmetry for positive Grassmannians
• Total positivity, Grassmannian and modified Bessel functions
• Grass(mannian) trees and forests: Variations of the exponential formula, with applications to the momentum amplituhedron
• The 𝑚=2 amplituhedron and the hypersimplex: Signs, clusters, tilings, Eulerian numbers
• Geometric Nature of Relations on Plabic Graphs and Totally Non-negative Grassmannians
• The positive Grassmannian, the amplituhedron, and cluster algebras
• Combinatorial reduction of set functions and matroid permutations through minor invertible product assignment
• Higher dimensional Fourier quasicrystals from Lee-Yang varieties
• Plabic tangles and cluster promotion maps
• Combinatorics of m = 1 Grasstopes
• How to stab a polytope
• Moduli spaces in positive geometry
• Sign choices for M. Kontsevich's formality
• Ising model and the positive orthogonal Grassmannian
• Decompositions of amplituhedra

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