Flow polytopes of signed graphs and the Kostant partition function

Abstract

We establish the relationship between volumes of flow polytopes associated to signed graphs and the Kostant partition function. A special case of this relationship, namely, when the graphs are signless, has been studied in detail by Baldoni and Vergne using techniques of residues. In contrast with their approach, we provide entirely combinatorial proofs inspired by the work of Postnikov and Stanley on flow polytopes. As a fascinating special family of flow polytopes, we study the Chan-Robbins-Yuen polytopes. Motivated by the beautiful volume formula $\prod_{k=1}^{n-2} Cat(k)$ for the type $A_n$ version, where $Cat(k)$ is the $k$th Catalan number, we introduce type $C_{n+1}$ and $D_{n+1}$ Chan-Robbins-Yuen polytopes along with intriguing conjectures pertaining to their properties.