Lexicographic shellability of sects

Abstract

In this paper, we show that the Bruhat order on any sect of a symmetric variety of type $AIII$ is lexicographically shellable. Our proof proceeds from a description of these posets as rook placements in a partition shape which fits in a $p \times q$ rectangle. This allows us to extend an EL-labeling of the rook monoid given by Can to an arbitrary sect. As a special case, our result implies that the Bruhat order on matrix Schubert varieties is lexicographically shellable.