Decomposing Inversion Sets of Permutations and Applications to Faces of the Littlewood-Richardson Cone

Abstract

If $α\in S_n$ is a permutation of $\{1, 2, \ldots, n\}$, the inversion set of $α$ is $Φ(α) = \{(i, j) \, | \, 1 \leq i < j \leq n, α(i) > α(j)\}$. We describe all $r$-tuples $α_1, α_2, \ldots, α_r \in S_n$ such that $Δ_n^+ = \{(i, j) \, | \, 1 \leq i < j \leq n\}$ is the disjoint union of $Φ(α_1), Φ(α_2), \ldots, Φ(α_r)$. Using this description we prove that certain faces of the Littlewood-Richardson cone are simplicial and provide an algorithm for writing down their sets of generating rays. We also discuss analogous problems for the Weyl groups of root systems of types $B$, $C$ and $D$ providing solutions for types $B$ and $C$. Finally we provide some enumerative results and introduce a useful tool for visualizing inversion sets.

43 pages