When is a Schubert variety Gorenstein?

Abstract

A (normal) variety is Gorenstein if it is Cohen-Macualay and its canonical sheaf is a line bundle. This property, which measures the ``pathology'' of the singularities of a variety, is thus stronger than Cohen-Macualayness, but is also weaker than smoothness. We determine which Schubert varieties are Gorenstein in terms of a combinatorial characterization using generalized pattern avoidance conditions. We also give an explicit description as a line bundle of the canonical sheaf of a Gorenstein Schubert variety.