English

Plethysm and orbit harmonics

Combinatorics 2026-02-16 v1 Commutative Algebra Representation Theory

Abstract

Let Π(ba)\Pi_{(b^a)} be the locus of unordered set partitions of [ab][ab] with aa blocks of size bb. We embed unordered set partitions of [n][n] into the affine space C([n]2)\mathbb{C}^{\binom{[n]}{2}} with coordinate ring C[x([n]2)]\mathbb{C}\Big[\mathbf{x}_{\binom{[n]}{2}}\Big]. Then, we apply orbit harmonics to Π(2a)\Pi_{(2^a)} and Π(a2)\Pi_{(a^2)}, yielding graded S2a\mathfrak{S}_{2a}-modules whose graded character formulae respectively refine the Schur expansions of ha[h2]h_a[h_2] and h2[ha]h_2[h_a] according to λ1\lambda_1. We further extend this λ1\lambda_1-separation phenomenon to quotients of C([n]2)\mathbb{C}^{\binom{[n]}{2}} where nn is odd. Combining Π(ba),Π(ab)\Pi_{(b^a)},\Pi_{(a^b)} and orbit harmonics, we propose a conjecture related to Foulkes' conjecture, and we prove the special case b=2b=2. We also apply orbit harmonics to the locus Πn,m\Pi_{n,m} of unordered set partitions of [n][n] without blocks of size greater than mm, yielding a graded Sn\mathfrak{S}_n-module R(Πn,m)R(\Pi_{n,m}). We determine the standard monomial basis of R(Πn,m)R(\Pi_{n,m}) with respect to any monomial order, as well as its graded character formula.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.12623,
  title  = {Plethysm and orbit harmonics},
  author = {Hai Zhu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.12623},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

22 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:34:50.197Z