B-orbits of nilpotent order 2 and link patterns

Abstract

In this paper we describe geometry of orbits of upper triangular matrices of nilpotent order 2 under conjugation by the group of upper triangular invertible matrices in terms of link patterns. Further we apply this description to the computations of the closures of orbital varieties of nilpotent order 2 and intersections of components of a Springer fiber of nilpotent order 2. In particular we connect our results to the combinatorics of meanders and Temperley-Lieb algebras.