English

Schubert calculus and torsion explosion

Representation Theory 2016-09-15 v3

Abstract

We observe that certain numbers occurring in Schubert calculus for SL_n also occur as entries in intersection forms controlling decompositions of Soergel bimodules and parity sheaves in higher rank. These numbers grow exponentially. This observation gives many counterexamples to Lusztig's conjecture on the characters of simple rational modules for SL_n over a field of positive characteristic. We explain why our examples also give counter-examples to the James conjecture on decomposition numbers for symmetric groups.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1309.5055,
  title  = {Schubert calculus and torsion explosion},
  author = {Geordie Williamson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.5055},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

23 pages, v2: proofs contain more detail, added an appendix with Kontorovich and McNamara proving exponential growth of torsion. v3: final version, to appear in JAMS

R2 v1 2026-06-22T01:30:29.260Z