The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter Groups
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The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups Yibo Gao Joint work with: Christian Gaetz Massachusetts Institute of Technology UW Combinatorics and Geometry Seminar, 2020 Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 1 / 35 Overview 1 Linear extensions and the 1/3-2/3 Conjecture 2 Weak order and convex sets 3 The fully commutative case 4 Generalized semiorders 5 A uniform lower bound 6 More examples Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 2 / 35 Linear extensions of posets A linear extension of a poset P is an order-preserving bijection: λ : P ! [n] = f1; 2;:::; ng: Let E(P) be the set of linear extensions of P and e(P) be the number of linear extensions of P. Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 3 / 35 The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture For p; q 2 P, let δ(p; q) be the fraction of linear extensions such that λ(p) < λ(q): jλ 2 E(P) j λ(p) < λ(q)j δ(p; q) = : e(P) Conjecture (Kislicyn 1968; Fredman 1974; Linial 1984) For any finite poset P that is not a total order, there exists p; q such that 1 2 ≤ δ(p; q) ≤ : 3 3 Define the balance constant to be b(P) = max minfδ(p; q); 1 − δ(p; q)g p;q2P Then the conjecture is saying that b(P) ≥ 1=3: Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 4 / 35 Why 1/3? Example p2 p1 p3 This poset has 3 linear extensions p1p2p3, p1p3p2, p3p1p2, with δ(p1; p2) = 1, δ(p1; p3) = 2=3, δ(p2; p3) = 1=3, thus b(P) = 1=3. Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 5 / 35 Known Results It is nontrivial that b(P) is uniformly bounded away from zero: • b(P) ≥ 1=2e ≈ 0:1839 (Kahn and Linial 1991) • b(P) ≥ 3=11 ≈ 0:2727 (Kahn and Saks 1984) p • b(P) ≥ (5 − 5)=10 ≈ 0:2764 (Brightwell, Felsner, and Trotter 1995) The full conjecture is known for: • Width-2 posets • Semiorders (unit interval orders) • Height-2 posets • Series parallel posets (N-free posets) Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 6 / 35 Coxeter groups and the weak order A Coxeter group W is generated by a set of simple reflections S = fs1;:::; sr g such that 2 mi;j W = hs1;:::; sr j si = id; (si sj ) = id; 8i; ji for some mij 2 f2; 3;:::; 1g: Let `(w) denote the Coxeter length of w 2 W . The (left) weak order ≤L is generated by w l sw if `(w) + 1 = `(sw): Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 7 / 35 Coxeter groups and the weak order Let (W ; S) be a Coxeter system. The reflections T are the conjugates of simple reflections. The (right) inversion set of w 2 W is Inv(w) := ft 2 T j `(wt) < `(w)g: Proposition 0 0 0 For w; w 2 W , w ≤L w if and only if Inv(w) ⊂ Inv(w ): It's not hard to see that `(w) = jInv(w)j: Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 8 / 35 Convex sets in Coxeter groups Let H be the Hasse diagram of the weak order ≤L. A subset C ⊂ W is called convex if for any x; y 2 C, any shortest-length path between x and y remains in C. Proposition (Tits 1974) Any convex subset C ⊂ W is of the form B C = WA := fw 2 W j A ⊂ Inv(w) ⊂ Bg: For our purposes, we usually translate a convex subset C by some element w 2 W to assume that A = ;. Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 9 / 35 Example: the symmetric group Sn The symmetric group Sn is a Coxeter group generated by S = f(12); (23);::: (n−1 n)g with reflections T = f(ij) j 1 ≤ i < j ≤ ng. The reflection (ij) is an inversion of w if w(i) > w(j). f(13);(23);(24)g C = f1234; 1243; 2134; 2143; 3142g is convex and C = W; . Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 10 / 35 Posets as convex sets in Sn For a poset P on fp1;:::; png, we identify E(P) as a set of permutations CP = fλ 2 E(P) j λ(1)λ(2) ··· λ(n) 2 Sng: Proposition The map P 7! CP gives a bijection between labeled poset on n elements and convex sets of Sn. Example p3 p4 p1 p2 corresponds to the convex set f1234; 2134; 2143; 1243; 2413g. Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 11 / 35 Balance constants for Coxeter groups Recall the definition and we have jfλ 2 E(P) j λ(p ) < λ(p )gj jfw 2 C j (ij) 2 Inv(w)gj δ(p ; p ) = j i = P : j i e(P) e(P) This suggests the following definition. Let C ⊂ W be a convex set and t 2 T be an inversion. Define jfw 2 C j t 2 Inv(w)gj δ(t) = : jCj Define the balance constant to be b(C) = max minfδ(t); 1 − δ(t)g: t2T Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 12 / 35 The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for finite Coxeter groups Remarkly, the natural generalization of the 1/3-2/3 Conjecture still seems to hold for finite Coxeter group. Conjecture (Gaetz and G. 2020) Let C be a convex set in a finite Coxeter group with jCj > 1, then b(C) ≥ 1=3. There are new equality cases in every type not coming from type A! Convex sets in finite Coxeter groups are exactly convex sets of regions in the corresponding Coxeter arrangement. The conjecture says that there is a hyperplane that cuts the convex set into roughly equal parts. Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 13 / 35 Fully commutative elements in Weyl groups Definition (Stembridge 1996) An element w 2 W is fully commutative if no reduced word of w contains a consecutive substring si sj si ··· with mij > 2. | {z } mij m Recall that we have relations (si sj ) ij = id. Example In S4, s2s1s3s2 = 3412 is fully commutative but s2s1s2s3 = 3241 is not. Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 14 / 35 Fully commutative elements and width-2 poset Proposition A permutation w 2 Sn is fully commutative if and only if w avoids 321. Definition A poset has width k if its longest antichain has size k. Proposition Under the bijection between (naturally labeled) posets and convex sets in Sn, width-2 posets P correspond to convex sets CP = [id; w]L where w is fully commutative. The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture is known for width-2 poset. We strengthen this result to other Coxeter group. Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 15 / 35 Fully commutative elements in Coxeter group Theorem (Gaetz and G. 2020) Let w 6= id 2 W be a fully commutative element in any Coxeter group W whose Coxeter diagram is acyclic, then b([id; w]L) ≥ 1=3. In particular, this theorem applies to all finite Coxeter groups. Example In the affine Weyl group Af3, w = s1s3s0s2 is fully commutative, but b([id; w]L) = 2=7. s1 • •s2 s0 • •s3 Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 16 / 35 Heaps of fully commutative elements The proof of this theorem uses the theory of heaps. Definition (Stembridge 1996) Let s = si1 ··· si` be a reduced word of w. The Heap poset Hs is the partial order ([`]; ), which is the transitive closure of 2 j k if j ≤ k and (sij sik ) 6= id: In the case where w is fully commutative, the Heap poset does not depend on the choice of a reduced word. We write the Heap poset as Hw . Proposition (Stembridge 1996) Let w 2 W be fully commutative. Then [id; w]L ' J(Hw ): Here J(Hw ) is the lattice of order ideals of Hw . Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 17 / 35 Balance constants for order ideals Let Q be a poset and J(Q) be the order ideals of Q. Define jfJ 2 J(Q) j x 2 Jgj δideal(x; Q) = ; jJ(Q)j b(Q) = max minfδideal(x; Q); 1 − δideal(x; Q)g: x2Q For fully commutative w, we have b([id; w]L) = b(Hw ). Example: non-example Consider the following poset Q = Hw , w = s1s3s0s2 2 W (Af3). We see that jJ(Q)j = 7 and b(Q) = 2=7. 0• •2 1• •3 Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 18 / 35 Equality cases These intervals C = [e; w]L give equality cases b(C) = 1=3: type diagram w Hw • • • A s s s s 2 1 2 1 2 • • •s3 D4 • • s4s2s3s1 • s1 s2 •s 4 • • • • • • B3 s1 s2 s3 s3s2s3s1 • • • •s6 • • E6 • • • • • s6s3s2s4s1s3s5 • • s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 • • • Yibo Gao (MIT) The 1/3-2/3 Conjecture for Coxeter groups December 2, 2020 19 / 35 Semiorders Definition A poset P is a semiorder (unit-interval order) if there exists a function f : P ! R such that p < q if and only if f (q) − f (p) > 1.