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1. Valuations and the Hopf Monoid of Generalized Permutahedra

   https://doi.org/10.1093/imrn/rnab355  

   Ardila, Federico ; Sanchez, Mario ( January 2022 , International Mathematics Research Notices)

   Abstract The goal of this paper is to show that valuation theory and Hopf theory are compatible on the class of generalized permutahedra. We prove that the Hopf structure $\textbf {GP}^+$ on these polyhedra descends, modulo the inclusion-exclusion relations, to an indicator Hopf monoid $\mathbb {I}(\textbf {GP}^+)$ of generalized permutahedra that is isomorphic to the Hopf monoid of weighted ordered set partitions. This quotient Hopf monoid $\mathbb {I}(\textbf {GP}^+)$ is cofree. It is the terminal object in the category of Hopf monoids with polynomial characters; this partially explains the ubiquity of generalized permutahedra in the theory of Hopf monoids. This Hopf theoretic framework offers a simple, unified explanation for many new and old valuations on generalized permutahedra and their subfamilies. Examples include, for matroids: the Chern–Schwartz–MacPherson cycles, Eur’s volume polynomial, the Kazhdan–Lusztig polynomial, the motivic zeta function, and the Derksen–Fink invariant; for posets: the order polynomial, Poincaré polynomial, and poset Tutte polynomial; for generalized permutahedra: the universal Tutte character and the corresponding class in the Chow ring of the permutahedral variety. We obtain several algebraic and combinatorial corollaries; for example, the existence of the valuative character group of $\textbf {GP}^+$ and the indecomposability of a nestohedron into smaller nestohedra. 

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2. The Transition Matrix Between the Specht and 𝔰𝔩3 Web Bases is Unitriangular With Respect to Shadow Containment

   https://doi.org/10.1093/imrn/rnaa290  

   Russell, Heather M ; Tymoczko, Julianna ( December 2020 , International Mathematics Research Notices)

   Abstract Webs are planar graphs with boundary that describe morphisms in a diagrammatic representation category for $\mathfrak{sl}_k$. They are studied extensively by knot theorists because braiding maps provide a categorical way to express link diagrams in terms of webs, producing quantum invariants like the well-known Jones polynomial. One important question in representation theory is to identify the relationships between different bases; coefficients in the change-of-basis matrix often describe combinatorial, algebraic, or geometric quantities (e.g., Kazhdan–Lusztig polynomials). By ”flattening” the braiding maps, webs can also be viewed as the basis elements of a symmetric group representation. In this paper, we define two new combinatorial structures for webs: band diagrams and their one-dimensional projections, shadows, which measure depths of regions inside the web. As an application, we resolve an open conjecture that the change of basis between the so-called Specht basis and web basis of this symmetric group representation is unitriangular for $\mathfrak{sl}_3$-webs ([ 33] and [ 29].) We do this using band diagrams and shadows to construct a new partial order on webs that is a refinement of the usual partial order. In fact, we prove that for $\mathfrak{sl}_2$-webs, our new partial order coincides with the tableau partial order on webs studied by the authors and others [ 12, 17, 29, 33]. We also prove that though the new partial order for $\mathfrak{sl}_3$-webs is a refinement of the previously studied tableau order, the two partial orders do not agree for $\mathfrak{sl}_3$. 

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3. Proof Complexity Lower Bounds from Algebraic Circuit Complexity

   https://doi.org/10.4086/toc.2021.v017a010  

   Forbes, Michael A. ; Shpilka, Amir ; Tzameret, Iddo ; Wigderson, Avi ( January 2021 , Theory of Computing)

   Raz, Ran (Ed.)

   We give upper and lower bounds on the power of subsystems of the Ideal Proof System (IPS), the algebraic proof system recently proposed by Grochow and Pitassi, where the circuits comprising the proof come from various restricted algebraic circuit classes. This mimics an established research direction in the boolean setting for subsystems of Extended Frege proofs whose lines are circuits from restricted boolean circuit classes. Essentially all of the subsystems considered in this paper can simulate the well-studied Nullstellensatz proof system, and prior to this work there were no known lower bounds when measuring proof size by the algebraic complexity of the polynomials (except with respect to degree, or to sparsity). Our main contributions are two general methods of converting certain algebraic lower bounds into proof complexity ones. Both require stronger arithmetic lower bounds than common, which should hold not for a specific polynomial but for a whole family defined by it. These may be likened to some of the methods by which Boolean circuit lower bounds are turned into related proof-complexity ones, especially the "feasible interpolation" technique. We establish algebraic lower bounds of these forms for several explicit polynomials, against a variety of classes, and infer the relevant proof complexity bounds. These yield separations between IPS subsystems, which we complement by simulations to create a partial structure theory for IPS systems. Our first method is a functional lower bound, a notion of Grigoriev and Razborov, which is a function f' from n-bit strings to a field, such that any polynomial f agreeing with f' on the boolean cube requires large algebraic circuit complexity. We develop functional lower bounds for a variety of circuit classes (sparse polynomials, depth-3 powering formulas, read-once algebraic branching programs and multilinear formulas) where f'(x) equals 1/p(x) for a constant-degree polynomial p depending on the relevant circuit class. We believe these lower bounds are of independent interest in algebraic complexity, and show that they also imply lower bounds for the size of the corresponding IPS refutations for proving that the relevant polynomial p is non-zero over the boolean cube. In particular, we show super-polynomial lower bounds for refuting variants of the subset-sum axioms in these IPS subsystems. Our second method is to give lower bounds for multiples, that is, to give explicit polynomials whose all (non-zero) multiples require large algebraic circuit complexity. By extending known techniques, we give lower bounds for multiples for various restricted circuit classes such sparse polynomials, sums of powers of low-degree polynomials, and roABPs. These results are of independent interest, as we argue that lower bounds for multiples is the correct notion for instantiating the algebraic hardness versus randomness paradigm of Kabanets and Impagliazzo. Further, we show how such lower bounds for multiples extend to lower bounds for refutations in the corresponding IPS subsystem. 

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4. A Shuffle Theorem for Paths Under Any Line

   https://doi.org/10.1017/fmp.2023.4  

   Blasiak, Jonah ; Haiman, Mark ; Morse, Jennifer ; Pun, Anna ; Seelinger, George H. ( January 2023 , Forum of Mathematics, Pi)

   Abstract We generalize the shuffle theorem and its $(km,kn)$ version, as conjectured by Haglund et al. and Bergeron et al. and proven by Carlsson and Mellit, and Mellit, respectively. In our version the $(km,kn)$ Dyck paths on the combinatorial side are replaced by lattice paths lying under a line segment whose x and y intercepts need not be integers, and the algebraic side is given either by a Schiffmann algebra operator formula or an equivalent explicit raising operator formula. We derive our combinatorial identity as the polynomial truncation of an identity of infinite series of $\operatorname {\mathrm {GL}}_{l}$ characters, expressed in terms of infinite series versions of LLT polynomials. The series identity in question follows from a Cauchy identity for nonsymmetric Hall–Littlewood polynomials. 

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5. Curvature Sets Over Persistence Diagrams

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00454-024-00634-0  

   Gómez, Mario ; Mémoli, Facundo ( April 2024 , Discrete & Computational Geometry)

   We study a family of invariants of compact metric spaces that combines the Curvature Sets defined by Gromov in the 1980 s with Vietoris–Rips Persistent Homology. For given integers$$k\ge 0$$$k\ge 0$and$$n\ge 1$$$n\ge 1$we consider the dimensionkVietoris–Rips persistence diagrams ofallsubsets of a given metric space with cardinality at mostn. We call these invariantspersistence setsand denote them as$${\textbf{D}}_{n,k}^{\textrm{VR}}$$$D_{n,k}^{\text{VR}}$. We first point out that this family encompasses the usual Vietoris–Rips diagrams. We then establish that (1) for certain range of values of the parametersnandk, computing these invariants is significantly more efficient than computing the usual Vietoris–Rips persistence diagrams, (2) these invariants have very good discriminating power and, in many cases, capture information that is imperceptible through standard Vietoris–Rips persistence diagrams, and (3) they enjoy stability properties analogous to those of the usual Vietoris–Rips persistence diagrams. We precisely characterize some of them in the case of spheres and surfaces with constant curvature using a generalization of Ptolemy’s inequality. We also identify a rich family of metric graphs for which$${\textbf{D}}_{4,1}^{\textrm{VR}}$$$D_{4,1}^{\text{VR}}$fully recovers their homotopy type by studying split-metric decompositions. Along the way we prove some useful properties of Vietoris–Rips persistence diagrams using Mayer–Vietoris sequences. These yield a geometric algorithm for computing the Vietoris–Rips persistence diagram of a spaceXwith cardinality$$2k+2$$$2k+2$with quadratic time complexity as opposed to the much higher cost incurred by the usual algebraic algorithms relying on matrix reduction.

    

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