Grossberg-Karshon twisted cubes and hesitant jumping walk avoidance

Abstract

Let $G$ be a complex simply-laced semisimple algebraic group of rank $r$ and $B$ a Borel subgroup. Let $\mathbf i \in [r]^n$ be a word and let $\mathbf \ell = (\ell_1,\dots,\ell_n)$ be a sequence of non-negative integers. Grossberg and Karshon introduced a virtual lattice polytope associated to $\mathbf i$ and $\mathbf \ell$ called a twisted cube, whose lattice points encode the character of a $B$-representation. More precisely, lattice points in the twisted cube, counted with sign according to a certain density function, yields the character of the generalized Demazure module determined by $\mathbf i$ and $\mathbf \ell$. In recent work, the author and Harada described precisely when the Grossberg-Karshon twisted cube is untwisted, i.e., the twisted cube is a closed convex polytope, in the situation when the integer sequence $\mathbf \ell$ comes from a weight $\lambda$ of $G$. However, not every integer sequence $\mathbf \ell$ comes from a weight of $G$. In the present paper, we interpret untwistedness of Grossberg-Karshon twisted cubes associated to any word $\mathbf i$ and any integer sequence $\mathbf \ell$ using the combinatorics of $\mathbf i$ and $\mathbf \ell$. Indeed, we prove that the Grossberg-Karshon twisted cube is untwisted precisely when $\mathbf i$ is hesitant-jumping-$\mathbf \ell$-walk-avoiding.