English

Vanishing of Schubert Coefficients

Combinatorics 2025-04-03 v3 Computational Complexity Discrete Mathematics Algebraic Geometry

Abstract

Schubert coefficients are nonnegative integers cu,vwc^w_{u,v} that arise in Algebraic Geometry and play a central role in Algebraic Combinatorics. It is a major open problem whether they have a combinatorial interpretation, i.e, whether cu,vw#Pc^w_{u,v} \in \#{\sf P}. We study the closely related vanishing problem of Schubert coefficients: {cu,vw=?0}\{c^w_{u,v}=^? 0\}. Until this work it was open whether this problem is in the polynomial hierarchy PH{\sf PH}. We prove that {cu,vw=?0}\{c^w_{u,v}=^? 0\} in coAM{\sf coAM} assuming the GRH. In particular, the vanishing problem is in Σ2p{\Sigma_2^{{\text{p}}}}. Our approach is based on constructions lifted formulations, which give polynomial systems of equations for the problem. The result follows from a reduction to Parametric Hilbert's Nullstellensatz, recently studied in arXiv:2408.13027. We extend our results to all classical types. Type DD is resolved in the appendix (joint with David Speyer).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2412.02064,
  title  = {Vanishing of Schubert Coefficients},
  author = {Igor Pak and Colleen Robichaux},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.02064},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

30 pages, with a joint appendix with David E Speyer. The type D background now appears in Appendix A. The BSS model results are now in Appendix B, with typos fixed. The type D results, joint with Speyer, appear in Appendix C

R2 v1 2026-06-28T20:20:39.212Z