Last update: 1 December 2012
A highest weight path is a path such that
the region
If is a highest weight path with then, necessarily, . The following theorem gives an expression for the character of a crystal in terms of the basis of .
Let be a crystal. Let be as defined in (5.24) and as in (5.25). Then
Proof. | |||
Fix ,
.
If let
be the element of the
-string of which satisfies
Then and Hence . Let Since , and There is some cancellation which can occur in this sum. Assume such that and let be the first time that leaves the cone . In other words, let be minimal such that there exists an with Let be the minimal index such that the point and define to be the element of the -string of such that
Note that since is not the head of its -string and is well defined. If then the first time that leaves the cone is the same as the first time that leaves the cone and . Thus and . Since the terms and cancel in the sum in (5.29). Thus |
Recall the notations for Weyl characters, tensor product multiplicities, restriction multiplicities and paths from (5.5), (5.11), (5.17), (5.22). For each fix a highest weight path with endpoint and let Let and let Then
Proof. | |
(a) The path is the unique ighest weight path in . Thus, by Theorem 5.5, (b) By the "Leibnitz formula" for the root operators in Theorem 5.8c, the set is a crystal. Since where the third equality is from Theorem 5.5 and the last equality is because the path has and is the only highest weight path in (c) A -crystal is a set of paths which is closed under the operators , for . Since the statement applies by applying Theorem 5.5 to viewed as a -crystal. |
These notes are intended to supplement various lecture series given by Arun Ram. This is a typed version of section 5.4 of the paper [Ram2006].
[Ram2006] Alcove walks, Hecke algebras, Spherical functions, crystals and column strict tableaux, Pure and Applied Mathematics Quarterly 2 no. 4 (Special Issue: In honor of Robert MacPherson, Part 2 of 3) (2006) 963-1013. MR2282411