On the size of Bruhat intervals

Joint with Federico Castillo, Damian de la Fuente and David Plaza. For affine Weyl groups and elements associated to dominant coweights, we give a convex geometry formula for the size of the corresponding lower Bruhat intervals (this says in particular that it is a polynomial in several variables). Extensive computer calculations for affine Weyl groups have led us to believe that a similar formula exists for all lower Bruhat intervals. We also believe that the cardinality of all Bruhat intervals is given by some family of quasi-polynomials.

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Demazure operators for double cosets

Joint with Ben Elias, Hankyung Ko and Leonardo Patimo. This is the first of a series of papers intended to advance in the development of a singular (i.e. double cosets) theory of Coxeter groups, Hecke algebras, actions of groups on polynomial rings and the Hecke category. Two milestones of this long-term project would be to produce singular light leaves and singular Soergel calculus. Here, we introduce a Demazure operator for any double coset. We prove several results about them, but the crucial thing for us is that they give a criterion for ensuring the proper behavior of singular Soergel bimodules.

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Combinatorial invariance conjecture for affine A2

Joint with Gastón Burrull and David Plaza, International Mathematics Research Notices 10 (2023) 8903–8933.  We prove the combinatorial invariance conjecture (by G. Lusztig and M. Dyer in the eighties) for the affine A2. This is the first infinite group with non-trivial Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials where this fascinating conjecture is proved.

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Pre-canonical bases on affine Hecke algebras

Joint with Leonardo Patimo and David Plaza, Advances in Mathematics  399 (2022). For any affine Weyl group, we introduce the pre-canonical bases, a set of bases of the spherical Hecke algebra that interpolates between the standard basis and the canonical basis. Thus we divide the hard problem of calculating Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials (or q-analogues of weight multiplicities) into a finite number of much easier problems.

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The Anti-Spherical Category

joint with Geordie Williamson, Advances in Mathematics  405 (2022). We prove that (sign) parabolic Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials have non-negative coefficients for ANY Coxeter system and ANY choice of a parabolic subgroup, thus generalizing to the parabolic setting the central result of The Hodge theory of Soergel bimodules by Elias and Williamson.  We also prove a monotonicity conjecture of Brenti. The new techniques were used by Williamson and Lusztig to calculate many new elements of the p-canonical basis and thus make the Billiards conjecture. Along the way, we introduce the anti-spherical light leaves.

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Blob algebra approach to modular representation theory

Joint work with David Plaza. Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 121 (2020) Issue3, 656-701. We conjecture (and prove the "graded degree part") an equivalence between the type A affine Hecke category in positive characteristic and a certain blob category that we introduce as a quotient of KLR algebras. This conjecture has been proved recently in an amazing paper by Chris Bowman, Anton Cox, Amit Hazi!! It opens lots of questions...

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p-Jones Wenzl idempotent

Joint work with Gastón Burrull and Paolo Sentinelli. Advances in Mathematics  352 (2019) 246-264. In this paper we introduce the p-Jones Wenzl idempotent, a characteristic p analogue of the classical Jones-Wenzl idempotent. We hope this to be a building block for the p-canonical basis as sl_2 is a building block for the representation theory of semi-simple Lie algebras.

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Gentle introduction to Soergel bimodules I: The basics

 Sao Paulo Journal of Mathematical Sciences, 13(2) (2019), 499-538. This paper is the first of a series of introductory papers on the fascinating world of Soergel bimodules. It is combinatorial in nature and should be accessible to a broad audience. We introduce the Forking path conjecture.

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Indecomposable Soergel bimodules for Universal Coxeter groups

joint with Ben Elias ; with an appendix by Ben Webster,  Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 369 (2017), 3883-3910. We introduce the multicolored Temperley-Lieb 2-category. Using it, we find the explicit numbers for which "Soergel's conjecture in positive characteristic for Universal Coxeter systems" fail.

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Light leaves and Lusztig’s conjecture

Advances in Mathematics (2015) 772-807. I introduce the double leaves basis and with it I prove that Lusztig's conjecture reduces to a problem about the light leaves. Using the result in Section 4.3 of this paper Geordie Williamson disproved Lusztig's conjecture! The counterexamples grow exponentially in the Coxeter number. Here is Geordie's paper  

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Standard objects in 2-braid groups

Joint with Geordie WilliamsonProceedings of the London Mathematical Society 109 (2014), no. 5, 1264-1280. We introduce the concept of Δ-exact complexes for any Coxeter system. With that, we establish the existence of analogues of standard and costandard objects in 2-braid groups, thus proving the conjecture that Rouquier stated in the ICM 2006. This result was a key step for the proof by Elias and Williamson of Kazhdan-Lusztig conjectures

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New bases of some Hecke algebras via Soergel bimodules 

Advances in Mathematics 228 (2011) 1043-1067. I introduce a new set of bases for Hecke algebras related to extra-large Coxeter groups, coming from the theory of Soergel bimodules. I believe that they have a deep meaning related to the Hecke category and the p-canonical basis. This is related to my "Forking Path conjecture" that is false as stated, as proved by Gonzalo Jimenez. Nonetheless, in all generality, there seems to be an extremely strange phenomenon that I would love to understand better. 

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Presentation of right-angled Soergel categories by generators and relations

Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra 214 (2010) no. 12, 2265-2278. This was the first time that a "presentation of Soergel bimodules by generators and relations" was attempted. This revolutionary idea (explained to me by Rouquier) was the key of all the impressive subsequent development of the theory.

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