The University of Michigan Student Combinatorics Seminar
Fall 2009
November 9, 4:10-5:00, 3866 East Hall



A new construction of the Kazhdan-Lusztig representations of the Hecke algebra

Charlie Buehrle

Lehigh University


Abstract

We give the presentations of the symmetric group and a generalization known as the Hecke algebra.

We introduce standard Young tableaux, permutations, and a bijection between them, called the Robinson-Schensted correspondence. These objects are crucial to define the Kazhdan-Lusztig basis, which is instrumental in the representation theory of the Hecke algebra.

Now we focus our attention on the polynomial ring on n^2 variables, and a generalization called the quantum polynomial ring. We develop an analog of the previous Kazhdan-Lusztig basis in this polynomial ring, called the Kazhdan-Lusztig immanants. We state vanishing results for these Kazhdan-Lusztig immanants. Applying these results we find a new construction of the Kazhdan-Lusztig representations of the Hecke algebra.