Date:           Wed, 10 Jan 1996 17:40:22 -0500
From:           kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU (Karen L. Collins)
To:             kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU


               Come to the eighteenth one day conference on

Combinatorics and Graph Theory

*SUNDAY*, February 4, 1996

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
at
Smith College
Northampton MA 01063

Schedule

10:00  Ethan Coven (Wesleyan Univ.)
Tiling the Integers with One Prototile

11:10  Daniel Kleitman (MIT)
TBA

12:10  Lunch

2:00  Emily Petrie (Merrimack College)
The Symmetry Group of an Almost Perfect One-Factorization

3:10  Joseph J. Rushanan (MITRE)
Parallel Processing and Cayley Graphs

Our Web page site has directions to Smith College, abstracts of
speakers, dates of future conferences, and other information.

We have received an NSF grant to support these conferences. This
will allow us to provide a modest transportation allowance to those
attendees who are not local.

Michael Albertson (Smith College), (413) 585-3865,
albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu

Karen Collins (Wesleyan Univ.), (203) 685-2169,
kcollins(at-sign)wesleyan.edu

Ruth Haas (Smith College), (413) 585-3872,
rhaas(at-sign)smith.smith.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------
Department of Mathematics, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT 06459-0128,
Office: (860) 685-2169, Fax: (860) 685-2571
-------------------------------------------------------------


Date:           Fri, 26 Jan 1996 16:09:48 -0500
From:           kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU (Karen L. Collins)
To:             kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU


               Come to the eighteenth one day conference on

Combinatorics and Graph Theory

*SUNDAY*, February 4, 1996

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
at
Smith College
Northampton MA 01063

Schedule

10:00  Ethan Coven (Wesleyan Univ.)
Tiling the Integers with One Prototile

11:10  Daniel Kleitman (MIT)
Two Problems in Applied Graph Theory:  a Vector Matching
Problem, and a Shuffling Problem

12:10  Lunch

2:00  Emily Petrie (Merrimack College)
The Symmetry Group of an Almost Perfect One-Factorization

3:10  Joseph J. Rushanan (MITRE)
Parallel Processing and Cayley Graphs

Our Web page site has directions to Smith College, abstracts of
speakers, dates of future conferences, and other information.

We have received an NSF grant to support these conferences. This
will allow us to provide a modest transportation allowance to those
attendees who are not local.

Michael Albertson (Smith College), (413) 585-3865,
albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu

Karen Collins (Wesleyan Univ.), (203) 685-2169,
kcollins(at-sign)wesleyan.edu

Ruth Haas (Smith College), (413) 585-3872,
rhaas(at-sign)smith.smith.edu


Date:           Tue, 30 Jan 1996 19:08:02 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        MIT Combinatorics Seminar: February schedule


		    MIT COMBINATORICS SEMINAR

Here is a list of talks currently scheduled for the month of February.
Notice that talks will normally begin at 4:15 p.m.; however, Vershik's
talk on the 28th (jointly sponsored by the Lie group seminar) will
start at 4:30.

Wednesday, February 7, 4:15 p.m.: Andrei Okounkov,
Edrei's theorem and representations of S(\infty)  (part I)

Friday, February 9, 4:15 p.m.: Andrei Okounkov,
Edrei's theorem and representations of S(\infty)  (part II)

Wednesday, February 14, 4:15 p.m.: Igor Pak,
A new bijective proof of the hook-length formula

Friday, February 23, 4:15 p.m.: Morris Dworkin,
Factorization of the cover polynomial

Wednesday, February 28, 4:30 p.m.: Anatoly Vershik,
A new version of the representation theory of Coxeter Groups
and spectra of Gel'fand-Zetlin algebras

All talks will meet in room 2-338.


Date:           Tue, 30 Jan 1996 19:59:13 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Okounkov, 2/7 and 2/9


Wednesday, February 7 and Friday, February 9, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Andrei Okounkov (Institute for Advanced Study)

Edrei's theorem and representations of S(\infty)

Abstract:

Edrei's theorem describes all so-called totally positive (or Polya
frequency) sequences.  By definition, a sequence  (a_i)  is called
totally positive if
\det [a_{i_p j_q}]_{1 \le p,q \le k}
for all k greater than or equal to 0 and all
i_1 < i_2 < ...  < i_k,
j_1 < j_2 < ... < j_k .
Such sequences arise in approximation theory, probability, ..., and
representation theory of S(\infty), U(\infty), O(\infty), Sp(\infty).
Two proofs of this theorem were known: Edrei's original proof,
based on results of Nevanlinna about entire functions, and the
ergodic'' proof of Vershik and Kerov, based on the calculation
of the asymptotics of the characters of S(n) as n goes to infinity.
New methods in the representation theory of infinite-dimensional
classical groups provide a new proof of Edrei's theorem as well as
a remarkable simplification of the existing proofs.


Date:           Wed, 31 Jan 1996 18:08:51 -0500
From:           kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU (Karen L. Collins)
To:             kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU


This is just to remind everyone who might attend the February 4th
CONE conference, that for the first time the conference is meeting
on a SUNDAY.

The spring conferences in March and April will both be on SATURDAY.


Date:           Thu, 1 Feb 1996 22:12:00 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Talk by Zelevinsky at Northeastern


  The following talk may be of interest to combinatorialists:

Monday Feb 5 at Northeastern's Geometry-Algebra-Singularities Seminar:

Andrei Zelevinsky:  "Totally positive matrices and pseudo line
arrangements"

1:30 PM at 509 Lake Hall.


Date:           Wed, 7 Feb 1996 13:20:18 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Pak, 2/14


Wednesday, February 14 1, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Igor Pak (Harvard)

A new bijective proof of the hook-length formula

We present a new proof of the hook-length formula for the dimension of
the irreducible representation of the symmetric group.  In order to do
that we construct an explicit bijection between two sets of tableaux.

Those who are interested may refer to
http://www.labri.u-bordeaux.fr/~betrema/pak/pak.html
for definitions and nice examples.


Date:           Fri, 16 Feb 1996 12:14:52 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Dworkin, 2/23


Friday, February 23, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Morris Dworkin (Brandeis)

Factorization of the cover polynomial

Chung and Graham's cover polynomial generalizes Goldman, Joichi,
and White's "factorial" rook polynomial to two variables.  We factor
the cover polynomial completely for Ferrers boards with either
increasing or decreasing column heights.  For column permuted
Ferrers boards, we find a sufficient condition for its partial
factorization.  We apply this to column permuted "staircase boards,"
getting a partial factorization in terms of the column permutation,
as well as a sufficient condition for complete factorization.


Date:           Wed, 21 Feb 1996 01:40:30 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Vershik, 2/28


Wednesday, February 28, 4:30 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Anatoly Vershik (Steklov Mathematical Institute)

A new version of the representation theory of Coxeter Groups
and spectra of Gel'fand-Tsetlin algebras

Classical representation theory of the symmetric groups (Young, Frobenius,
Schur, Weyl, von Neumann, et al.) involves from the outset the notion of
Young diagrams and some nontrivial combinatorics of the Young lattice.

Since the branching rule for the irreducible representations of S_n
(n=1,2,...) is described by the Young lattice, one could wonder: is it
possible to find this rule a priori, i.e., before all the representation
theory of S_n is constructed?  For beginners, the "yes" answer would
justify the introduction of the Young diagrams, whereas the experts
could say that the representation theory of the symmetric groups at last
(a century after its creation) becomes a part of general representation
theory.

Now we can say "yes"!  Using Coxeter generators, Murphy-Jusys elements,
Gel'fand-Tsetlin subalgebra for the symmetric groups, its spectrum,
and adding some simple arguments, we obtain a new and very natural
version of this remarkable classical theory.


Date:           Fri, 23 Feb 1996 14:31:26 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Re: Vershik, 2/28 (starting time)


This is a reminder that Vershik's talk this coming Wednesday ("A new
version of the representation theory of Coxeter Groups and spectra of
Gel'fand-Tsetlin algebras") will begin at *4:30* (not the usual 4:15),
since it is being sponsored jointly with the Lie Groups seminar.


Date:           Fri, 23 Feb 1996 15:55:45 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Vershik talk, 2/29


The following talk may be of interest to local combinatorialists:

Anatoly Vershik,
Joint Brandeis-Harvard-MIT-Northeastern Colloquium,
Feb. 29, 4:30pm, Room 335, New Classroom Building,
Northeastern University (tea at 4pm in Room 509, Lake Hall):
"Asymptotic combinatorial and geometric problems from the statistical
physics point of view."


Date:           Sun, 25 Feb 1996 15:05:25 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Cohn and Propp, 3/1


Friday, March 1, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Henry Cohn (Harvard) and Jim Propp (M.I.T.)

A limit law for constrained plane partitions

MacMahon showed that the number of plane partitions with at most n rows,
at most n columns, and all parts of size at most n is equal to

n-1     n-1     n-1
------- ------- -------
|   |   |   |   |   |   i+j+k+2
|   |   |   |   |   |   --------
|   |   |   |   |   |   i+j+k+1
i=0     j=0     k=0

(a generalization of binomial coefficients).  The problem can also be
viewed as one of counting plane partitions whose solid Young diagram
fits inside an n-by-n-by-n box, or as one of counting tilings of a
regular hexagon of side-length n by rhombuses of side 1.

Working with Michael Larsen, we have recently shown that for n large,
a typical'' tiling of the hexagon (i.e., one chosen uniformly at
random from the set of all tilings with n fixed) has one sort of
behavior near the boundary of the hexagon and a qualitatively different
sort in the interior, where the border between the two regions is
asymptotically given by the circle inscribed in the hexagon.  The
local behavior inside the circle varies from place to place, and we
can give a formula for how it varies.  Our results can be interpreted
as giving an asymptotic law for the typical shape of the solid Young
diagram of a constrained plane partition.


Date:           Sun, 25 Feb 1996 19:44:06 -0500
From:           kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU (Karen L. Collins)
Subject:        April 27th CoNE meeting
To:             kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU


The twentieth meeting of the CoNE conferences will be held
Saturday, April 27, 1996.  To celebrate, we are planning both
a problem session in place of the usual 11:10 talk, with a
pizza lunch ($5 per person) directly following. If you would like to submit one or more problems, please send a short written description of the problem(s) to Mike Albertson (albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu) on or before Thursday, April 25th. TeX is OK, as is ASCII, or even hard copy (to Clark Science Center, Smith College, Northampton MA 01063), but please keep each problem on one page. Printed versions of these descriptions will be handed out to the participants at the meeting. We'll schedule problem submitters in the problems session for 5-10 minutes each. There will be a sign up for the pizza lunch at the meeting on Saturday, before and directly after the 10:00 talk. Thanks, and we hope to see you there.  Date: Sun, 25 Feb 1996 19:51:01 -0500 From: kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU (Karen L. Collins) Subject: April 27th CoNE meeting To: kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU  The twentieth meeting of the CoNE conferences will be held Saturday, April 27, 1996. To celebrate, we are planning both a problem session in place of the usual 11:10 talk, with a pizza lunch ($5 per person) directly following.

If you would like to submit one or more problems, please send
a short written description of the problem(s) to

Mike Albertson (albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu)

on or before Thursday, April 25th.  TeX is OK, as is ASCII, or even
hard copy (to Clark Science Center, Smith College, Northampton MA 01063),
but please keep each problem on one page.  Printed versions of these
descriptions will be handed out to the participants at the meeting.  We'll
schedule problem submitters in the problems session for 5-10 minutes each.

There will be a sign up for the pizza lunch at the meeting on Saturday,
before and directly after the 10:00 talk.  Thanks, and we hope to see
you there.


Date:           Sun, 25 Feb 1996 19:58:16 -0500
From:           kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU (Karen L. Collins)
Subject:        April 27th CoNE meeting
To:             kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU


The twentieth meeting of the CoNE conferences will be held
Saturday, April 27, 1996.  To celebrate, we are planning both
a problem session in place of the usual 11:10 talk, with a
pizza lunch ($5 per person) directly following. If you would like to submit one or more problems, please send a short written description of the problem(s) to Mike Albertson (albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu) on or before Thursday, April 25th. TeX is OK, as is ASCII, or even hard copy (to Clark Science Center, Smith College, Northampton MA 01063), but please keep each problem on one page. Printed versions of these descriptions will be handed out to the participants at the meeting. We'll schedule problem submitters in the problems session for 5-10 minutes each. There will be a sign up for the pizza lunch at the meeting on Saturday, before and directly after the 10:00 talk. Thanks, and we hope to see you there.  Date: Sun, 25 Feb 1996 19:52:57 -0500 From: kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU (Karen L. Collins) Subject: April 27th CoNE meeting To: kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU  The twentieth meeting of the CoNE conferences will be held Saturday, April 27, 1996. To celebrate, we are planning both a problem session in place of the usual 11:10 talk, with a pizza lunch ($5 per person) directly following.

If you would like to submit one or more problems, please send
a short written description of the problem(s) to

Mike Albertson (albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu)

on or before Thursday, April 25th.  TeX is OK, as is ASCII, or even
hard copy (to Clark Science Center, Smith College, Northampton MA 01063),
but please keep each problem on one page.  Printed versions of these
descriptions will be handed out to the participants at the meeting.  We'll
schedule problem submitters in the problems session for 5-10 minutes each.

There will be a sign up for the pizza lunch at the meeting on Saturday,
before and directly after the 10:00 talk.  Thanks, and we hope to see
you there.


Date:           Mon, 26 Feb 1996 09:34:04 -0500
From:           kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU (Karen L. Collins)
Subject:        April 27th CoNE meeting
To:             kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU


The twentieth meeting of the CoNE conferences will be held
Saturday, April 27, 1996.  To celebrate, we are planning both
a problem session in place of the usual 11:10 talk, with a
pizza lunch ($5 per person) directly following. If you would like to submit one or more problems, please send a short written description of the problem(s) to Mike Albertson (albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu) on or before Thursday, April 25th. TeX is OK, as is ASCII, or even hard copy (to Clark Science Center, Smith College, Northampton MA 01063), but please keep each problem on one page. Printed versions of these descriptions will be handed out to the participants at the meeting. We'll schedule problem submitters in the problems session for 5-10 minutes each. There will be a sign up for the pizza lunch at the meeting on Saturday, before and directly after the 10:00 talk. Thanks, and we hope to see you there.  Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 12:31:13 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Carroll, 3/6 (special meeting)  SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COMBINATORICS SEMINAR Wednesday, March 6, 3:00 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338 ^^^^^^^^ (note unusual time) Sean Carroll (M.I.T.) Beyond matrix models: a combinatorial approach to discretized two-dimensional quantum gravity The Feynman path integral for two-dimensional quantum gravity, which is a sum over geometries and matter configurations, can be calculated by taking the continuum limit of a discretized theory of triangulated surfaces with combinatorial data representing matter fields. I will discuss an approach to such a calculation using recursion equations in free variables. The flexibility of this method allows the computation of a number of quantities which would be difficult to compute using traditional "matrix model" approaches to these theories.  Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 12:37:45 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: *** CHANGE OF SCHEDULE ***  Emily Petrie's talk, which was announced for March 6, will be given on March 8. There isn't time to send out mail about this, so please spread the word to anyone you know who you think might be planning to attend her lecture. A corrected announcement for her talk follows. Jim Propp  Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 12:38:39 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Petrie, 3/8  Friday, March 8, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338 ^^^^^^^ (note change of date) Emily Petrie (Merrimack) The symmetry group of an almost perfect one-factorization A perfect 1-factorization of the complete graph K2n may be defined as a partition of the edge set into 1-factors, such that the union of any two of the 1-factors is connected. When viewed this way, a natural generalization is to consider 1-factorizations of K2n where the union of any three of the 1-factors is connected. We call these almost perfect 1-factorizations. We examine the automorphism group G of such 1-factorizations. For perfect 1-factorizations on K2n, strong divisibility conditions have been established for the size of the automorphism group, depending only on n. However for other types of 1-factorizations the order of the automorphism group can be relatively large in comparison with the number of vertices 2n. We ask, what restrictions can be placed on the size of the automorphism group G in the case of an almost perfect 1-factorization?  Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 13:55:20 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: MIT Combinatorics Seminar: March schedule  Here is a list of talks currently scheduled for the month of March. Notice that all talks will begin at 4:15 p.m. except for the talk on March 6. Friday, March 1, 4:15 p.m.: Henry Cohn and Jim Propp, A limit law for constrained plane partitions Wednesday, March 6, 3:00 p.m.: Sean Carroll, Beyond matrix models: a combinatorial approach to discretized two-dimensional quantum gravity Friday, March 8, 4:15 p.m.: Emily Petrie, The symmetry group of an almost perfect one-factorization Wednesday, March 13, 4:15 p.m.: Alex Postnikov, Deformed Coxeter hyperplane arrangements Friday, March 15, 4:15 p.m.: Christos Athanasiadis, The characteristic polynomial of a rational subspace arrangement Wednesday, March 20, 4:15 p.m.: Volkmar Welker, On divisor posets of affine semigroups All talks will meet in room 2-338.  Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 19:48:53 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Discrete Dinner: preliminary announcement  It's time to start planning the spring semester's Discrete Dinner. Please send me comments on the following proposed dates: Friday, April 12 Wednesday, April 17 Friday, April 19 Wednesday, April 24 Friday, April 26 As usual, I ask you to indicate the strengths of your preferences for the respective dates (from "impossible" to "strongly preferred"). Jim Propp  Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 19:49:42 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Postnikov, 3/13  Wednesday, March 13, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338 Alex Postnikov (M.I.T.) Deformed Coxeter hyperplane arrangements The braid or Coxeter arrangement of type A_{n-1} is the arrangement of hyperplanes in R^n given by the equations x_i - x_j = 0. We study deformations of this arrangement, i.e., hyperplane arrangements of the type x_i - x_j = a_{ij}^1,a_{ij}^2,...,a_{ij}^k. We calculate the number of regions and the Poincare polynomial for many arrangements of this form. In particular, we prove a conjecture by Richard Stanley that the number of regions of the arrangement in R^n given by the equations x_i - x_j = 1, i<j, is equal to the number of alternating trees on {1,2,...,n}. The number of regions and the Poincare polynomial have some interesting combinatorial and arithmetical properties. Many of the results presented here are obtained in collaboration with Richard Stanley.  Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 20:11:12 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Athanasiadis, 3/15  Friday, March 15, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338 Christos Athanasiadis (M.I.T.) The characteristic polynomial of a rational subspace arrangement Let A be an affine subspace arrangement in R^n, defined over the integers. We give a combinatorial interpretation of the characteristic polynomial chi(A, q) of A that is valid for sufficiently large prime values of q. This result, which generalizes a theorem of Blass and Sagan, reduces the computation of chi(A, q) to a counting problem and provides an explanation for the wealth of combinatorial results discovered in the theory of hyperplane arrangements in recent years. The basic idea appeared for the first time in 1970 in a theorem of Crapo and Rota, which unfortunately was overlooked in the later development of the theory of arrangements. We give applications for various hyperplane arrangements. These include a simple, uniform proof of a result of Blass and Sagan about the characteristic polynomial of a Coxeter arrangement, simple derivations of the characteristic polynomials of the Shi arrangements and various generalizations and a another proof of Stanley's conjecture about the number of regions of the Linial arrangement. We also extend our method to the computation of all face numbers of a rational hyperplane arrangement.  Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 20:29:26 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Re: Discrete Dinner  It's been pointed out to me that two of my proposed dinner dates (April 17 and April 19) fall during the RotaFest, and I think that this makes them unsuitable. So let's restrict ourselves to considering April 12, 24, and 26 for the time being. Jim Propp  Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 13:31:47 -0500 From: kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU (Karen L. Collins) To: kcollins(at-sign)MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU   Come to the nineteenth one day conference on Combinatorics and Graph Theory Saturday, March 30, 1996 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Smith College Northampton MA 01063 Schedule 10:00 Andrew Kotlov (Yale University) The rank and chromatic number of graphs 11:10 Rodica Simion (George Washington University) Some relations between polytopes and combinatorial statistics 12:10 Lunch 2:00 Sheila Sundaram (University of Miami) On the homology of partitions with an even number of blocks 3:10 Tamas Szonyi (Yale University) Blocking sets in projective planes *Our three year NSF grant is ending this spring. Looking at the remaining budget for the two spring conferences, we have to reduce the transportation allowance for non-local participants for the March 30th conference to$40 (from the usual $50). We have applied for a renewal for another 3 years of grant support, and hope to hear soon from NSF.* Our Web page site has directions to Smith College, abstracts of speakers, dates of future conferences, and other information. The address is: http://math.smith.edu/~rhaas/coneweb.html Michael Albertson (Smith College), (413) 585-3865, albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu Karen Collins (Wesleyan Univ.), (203) 685-2169, kcollins(at-sign)wesleyan.edu Ruth Haas (Smith College), (413) 585-3872, rhaas(at-sign)smith.smith.edu  Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 00:26:13 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Discrete Dinner  It seems that many people can't make any of the dates in April, so I'm considering holding the Discrete Dinner in early May. I would appreciate feedback on the following dates: Wednesday, May 1 Friday, May 3 Wednesday, May 8 Friday, May 10 Jim Propp  Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 15:04:05 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: talk by Boris Shapiro, 3/19  Combinatorialists may be interested in the following seminar: Boris Shapiro (U. Stockholm) "Enumeration of connected components of the intersection of two open opposite Schubert cells" Tuesday March 19 at 1 PM, at 509 Lake Hall, Northeastern Univ. - Geometry-Algebra-Singularities Seminar - Following is amsteX abstract: \input {amstex} \advance\voffset by -1.0cm \NoBlackBoxes %\nopagenumbers \magnification=\magstep1 %\hfuzz=3.5pt \hsize=17truecm \vsize=24.2truecm \voffset=0.5truecm %\hoffset \document \define \bZ {\Bbb Z} \topmatter \title On the number of connected components in the intersection of 2 open opposite Schubert cells in$SL_n/B$\endtitle \author B.~Z.~Shapiro, M.~Z.~Shapiro, A.~D.~Vainshtein \endauthor \affil \endaffil \abstract We consider the space \endabstract \abstract Let$T_n$denote the group of real unitary uppertriangular matrices and$\Delta_i,\;i=1,...,n-1$denote the the hypersurface in$T_n$given by vanishing of the 'principal'$i\times i$-minor in the right upper corner. We study the number of connected components in$\Cal
C_n=T_n
\setminus \bigcup_i\Delta_i$using ideas from \cite {L} and \cite {BFZ}. At first the problem is reduced to a purely combinatorial question about some 'action' on the group$T_n(\bZ_2)$of uppertriangular matrices with$0-1$-entries. The final conjecture under consideration is as follows. The number$\sharp_n$of connected components in$\Cal C_n$equals$3\times
2^n$for all$n\ge 5$. (Cases$n=3$and$n=4$are exceptional and$\sharp_3=6$,$\sharp_4=52$.) \endabstract \endtopmatter \Refs \widestnumber \key{ShSh} \ref \key {BFZ} \by A.~Berenstein, S.~Fomin, A,~Zelevinski \paper Parametrizations of canonical bases and totally positive matrices \jour preprint \yr 1995\pages 1--98\endref \ref \key {L} \by G.~Lusztig \paper Total positivity in reductive groups \inbook Lie theory and geometry: in honor of Bertram Kostant, Progress in Math \publ Birkh\"auser\vol 123 \yr 1994 \endref \ref \key {SS} \by B.~Z.~Shapiro, M.~Z.~Shapiro \paper On the totally positive upper triangular matrices \finalinfo accepted to Lin. Alg. and Appl \endref \endRefs \enddocument  Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 15:05:06 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Welker, 3/20  Wednesday, March 20, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338 Volkmar Welker (Essen, Germany)) On divisor posets of affine semigroups In this talk we give a preliminary report on work on posets that occur as lower intervals in the poset defined on the elements of a sub-semigroup S of N^n by divisibility within S. By work of Laudal to compute the homology of the order complexes over k of these posets is equivalent to compute Tor_i^R(k,k) for R = k[S]. We will show how to reprove some known results about Koszul rings using these techniques and show that the complexes that occur in this context are very closely related to complexes that are associated to quotients of polynomial ring by monomials of degree 2 (e.g., Stanley-Reisner rings of posets).  Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 19:01:48 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Exactly Solvable Models  These two items may interest some of you: A SYMPOSIUM ON EXACTLY SOLUBLE MODELS IN STATISTICAL MECHANICS: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES AND CURRENT STATUS MARCH 30-31, 1996 to be held at Northeastern University, Boston, MA The purpose of the symposium is to present historical perspectives as well as to assess the current status of the field of soluble models in statistical mechanics. Invited speakers include R. J. Baxter, D. Fisher, V. F. R. Jones, L. H. Kauffman, E. H. Lieb, B. M. McCoy, J. H. H. Perk, S. Sachdev, C. A. Tracy, P. Wiegmann, and others. There will also be a mini-poster session for contributed papers. For further inquiries please contact fywu(at-sign)neu.edu, king(at-sign)neu.edu, or circs(at-sign)phyjj4.cas.neu.edu, or write to Ms. M McKeever, Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115. ****************************************************************** Also: Rodney J. Baxter is currently giving a course on exactly solvable models at Northeastern. It meets every Wed 11:45 am in Rm 114 DANA (physics), except this week, for about 10 weeks. The lectures started two weeks ago (next week's lecture will be #3).  Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 15:23:22 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: MIT Combinatorics Seminar: April schedule  Here is a list of talks currently scheduled for the month of April. Notice that all talks will begin at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, 4:15 p.m.: Tony Iarrobino, The hook algebra Wednesday, April 10, 4:15 p.m.: Andrei Zelevinsky, Quasicommuting families of quantum type Plucker coordinates Friday, April 12, 4:15 p.m.: Ken Fan, Schubert varieties and short braidedness Wednesday, April 24, 4:15 p.m.: Glenn Tesler, Plethystic formulas for the Macdonald q,t-Kostka coefficients Friday, April 26, 4:15 p.m.: Sinai Robins, The Ehrhart polynomial of a lattice polytope All talks will meet in room 2-338.  Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 15:36:57 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: RotaFest and Umbral Calculus workshop  In case there are any subscribers to this list who aren't aware of the RotaFest and Umbral Calculus workshop to be held here in mid-April, details can be found at the URL http://www-math.mit.edu/~loeb/rotafest.html ; you can also contact Richard Stanley, who is one of the organizers. Jim Propp  Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 15:37:27 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Iarrobino, 4/3  Wednesday, April 3, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338 Tony Iarrobino (Northeastern) The hook algebra We had shown that given a natural number n, and a sequence T = (1,2,3,...,d,t_d,...,t_i,...,t_j) of integers satisfying t_d \geq t_{d+1} \geq ... \geq t_j and \Sigma t_i = n , then the lattice P(T) of partitions having diagonal lengths T is isomorphic to a product Q(T) = L_d \times ... \times L_j where each L_i is the lattice of partitions having no more than t_i-t_{i+1} rows and 1+t_{i-1}-t_i columns, under inclusion. The map D from P(T) to Q(T): P --> Q(P) arises from arranging the difference-one hooks of P having hands on the i-diagonal into parts according to the number of such hooks having a given hand. It follows that the knowledge of Q_1(P) = Q(P) --- the difference-one hooks of P --- determines the difference-a hooks of T for all a. In this talk we define difference-a hook partitions and describe a composition Q_a(P) \times Q_b(P) --> Q_{a+b}(P) . Thus we define a hook difference algebra'' such that Q_a(P) = Q_1(P) \times ... Q_1(P) (a times). This algebra is related to the strand map'' S: Q(T) --> P(T) that is the inverse of D. This is joint work with J. Yam\'eogo.  Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 16:47:08 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Discrete Dinner   Spring 1996 Boston Area Discrete Mathematics Dinner (first announcement) This semester's Discrete Dinner will be held on Wednesday, May 8 at 6 p.m. at Helmand's Restaurant (143 First Street, Cambridge) between Kendall Square and Lechmere. The cost will be$10 for
with the rest of us making up the difference.

probability of attendance.  My e-mail address is propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu;
if you don't have e-mail, call 253-6544.


Date:           Wed, 3 Apr 1996 10:28:27 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Zelevinsky, 4/10


Wednesday, April 10, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Andrei Zelevinsky (Northeastern)

Quasicommuting families of
quantum type Plucker coordinates

This is an account of a joint work with Bernard Leclerc.  We consider
the q-deformation of the coordinate ring of the flag variety of type
A_r . This is the algebra with unit over the field of rational functions
Q(q) generated by 2^{r+1}-1 generators [J] labeled by nonempty subsets
J \subset [1,r+1] := {1,2, ..., r+1} , subject to the quantized Pl\"ucker
relations.  We refer to the generators [J] as _quantum_flag_minors_
(they can be identified with q-minors of a generic q-matrix whose row
set consists of several initial rows).  We say that [I] and [J]
_quasicommute_ if [J][I] = q^n [I][J] for some integer n.  We are
concerned with the following problem motivated by the study of canonical
bases for quantum groups of type A_r .

Problem A: describe all families of quasicommuting quantum flag minors.

We obtain a combinatorial criterion for quasicommutativity of two quantum
flag minors [I] and [J].  As a consequence, we show that the maximal
possible size of a quasicommuting family of quantum flag minors is
{r+2 \choose 2}.  An interesting special class of such families is in a
bijection with the set of commutation classes of reduced expressions
for the longest permutation w_0 \in S_{r+1}.  This result leads to a
natural extension of the _second_Bruhat_order_ by Manin-Schechtman.



Date:           Wed, 3 Apr 1996 10:31:30 -0500 (EST)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Fan, 4/12


Friday, April 12, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Ken Fan (Harvard)

Schubert varieties and short braidedness

The theorem I will prove is this:  In a finite type Weyl group,
an element w has the property that you can knock out any simple
generator from any reduced expression and come up with another
reduced expression if and only if w is sts-avoiding.  I'll use
this fact to exhibit a family of singular Schubert varieties.

One curious thing is that this fact depends on finite type and
is not a purely braid relation fact since it isn't true in affine
A_2, for instance.


Date:           Wed, 3 Apr 1996 11:44:07 -0500 (EST)
From:           Sergey Fomin <fomin(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Baxter, April 8


APPLIED MATHEMATICS COLLOQUIUM
Monday, April 8, 1996, 4:15 p.m.
M.I.T., Building 2, Room 105

Professor Rodney J. Baxter (Australian National University)
will speak on
"The hard hexagon model and Rogers-Ramanujanism"

Refreshments will be served from 3:45 p.m. in Building 2, Room 349.

From propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu Tue Apr  9 18:09:38 1996
To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject: new URL for archive

The archive is now

http://www-math.mit.edu/~propp/combinatorics-archive/

Jim


Date:           Wed, 10 Apr 1996 13:33:15 -0400
To:             kcollins(at-sign)mail.wesleyan.edu
From:           kcollins(at-sign)wesleyan.edu (Karen L. Collins)


               Come to the TWENTIETH one day conference on

Combinatorics and Graph Theory

Saturday, April 27, 1996

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
at
Smith College
Northampton MA 01063

Schedule

10:00  Vera Pless (University of Illinois at Chicago)
TBA

11:10  Problem Session by Participants
Send in contributions by Thursday, April 25th

12:30  Pizza Lunch!!

2:00  Brenda Latka (DIMACS)
Forbidden Subtournaments and Antichains

3:10  Linda Lesniak (Drew University)
Tough Graph Theory

*Our three year NSF grant is ending this spring.  Looking at the
remaining budget, we have to reduce the transportation allowance
for non-local participants for the April 27th conference to $40 (from the usual$50).  We have applied for a renewal for another
3 years of grant support, and hope to hear soon from NSF.*

Our Web page site has directions to Smith College, abstracts of
speakers, dates of future conferences, and other information.

Michael Albertson (Smith College), (413) 585-3865,
albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu

Karen Collins (Wesleyan Univ.), (203) 685-2169,
kcollins(at-sign)wesleyan.edu

Ruth Haas (Smith College), (413) 585-3872,
rhaas(at-sign)smith.smith.edu


Date:           Wed, 10 Apr 1996 13:33:59 -0400
To:             kcollins(at-sign)mail.wesleyan.edu
From:           kcollins(at-sign)wesleyan.edu (Karen L. Collins)


PROBLEM SESSION

at the

CoNE meeting Saturday, April 27.

Please submit problems (keep to one page please) in TeX, ASCII, or hard
copy on or before April 25.  Early submissions will be appreciated.

Send to Mike Albertson (Math Dept., Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063) or
Albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu


Date:           Tue, 16 Apr 1996 18:33:03 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        RotaFest schedule (LaTeX source)


% LaTeX file of Rotafest Program
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{amssymb,latexsym}
\baselineskip0.20truein
\parskip0.20truein
\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}

\begin{center}
{\bf\Large ROTAFEST PROGRAM}\\[.5in]
{\bf Tuesday, April 16}\\[.2in]
\end{center}
\begin{tabbing}
aaa\=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa\=\kill
\>7:00--9:30 p.m.\> reception at Charles Hotel\\
\end{tabbing}

\begin{center}
{\bf Wednesday, April 17}\\[.2in]
\end{center}
\begin{tabbing}
aaa\=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa\=\kill
\>9:00--12:00\> morning session, room 9-150 (Andr\a'e Joyal, chair)\\
\>9:00--9:30\> Adriano Garsia, The $n!$-conjecture and the $q,t$
Kostka polynomials \\
\>9:45--10:15\> Stephen Grossberg, Nonlinear dynamics of neural networks\\
\>10:45--11:15\> Mark Haiman\\
\>11:30--12:00\> Lawrence Harper, The peaks of partition numbers\\[.2in]
\>2:00--5:00\> afternoon session (Erwin Lutwak, chair)\\
\>2:00--2:30 \> Jay Goldman, Combinatorics and knot theory\\
\>2:45--3:15\> Daniel Klain, Invariant valuations on convex bodies\\
\>3:45--4:15\> Joseph Kung, Line sizes and the number of points
in a matroid\\
\>4:30--5:00\> Andrew Odlyzko\\
\end{tabbing}

\begin{center}
{\bf Thursday, April 18}\\[.2in]
\end{center}

\begin{tabbing}
aaa\=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa\=\kill
\>9:00--12:00 \> morning session (Steve Tanny, chair)\\
\>9:00--9:30 \> Willaim Schmitt\\
\>9:45--10:15\> Bruce Sagan, Beyond semimodular lattices\\
\>10:45--11:15\> Pat O'Neil\\
\>11:30--12:00\> David Sharp, Raleigh-Taylor instability, chaotic
mixing layer\\
\>2:00--5:00\> afternoon session (Peter Doubilet, chair)\\
\>2:00--2:30\> Richard Stanley, Hyperplane arrangements, inversions,
and trees\\
\>2:45--3:15\> Joel Stein, The future of invariant theory\\
\>3:45--4:15\> Bernd Sturmfels, Lattice walks and primary decomposition\\
\>4:30--5:00\> Neil White, Coxeter matroids\\[.2 in]
\>6:00--10:00\> banquet, Hyatt Regency Hotel\\
\end{tabbing}

\begin{center}
{\bf Friday, April 19}\\[.2in]
\end{center}

\begin{tabbing}
aaa\=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa\=\kill
\> 9:00--12:00 \> morning session (Joseph Oliviera, chair)\\
\>9:00--9:30 \> Walter Whiteley, Two matroids from geometric
homology:\\
\>9:45--10:15\> Kenneth Baclawski, Politically correct ordered sets:\\
\>10:45--11:15\> Wendy Chan, Classification of trivectors in 6-D space\\
\>11:30--12:00\> David Buchsbaum, Letter-place methods and homotopy\\[.2in]
\>\> afternoon free\\[.2in]
\> 6:30 \> dinner at Salamander\\
\> around 6:30 \> alternate dinner at Royal East\\
\end{tabbing}

\begin{center}
{\bf Saturday, April 20}\\[.2in]
\end{center}

\begin{tabbing}
aaa\=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa\=\kill
\>9:00--12:00 \> morning session (Curtis Greene, chair)\\
\>9:00--9:30 \> Henry Crapo, Unities and negation:\\
\>9:45--10:15\> {\bf Gian-Carlo Rota}, Ten lessons I should have been
taught\\
\>10:45--11:15\> Peter Duren\\
\>11:30--12:00\> Richard Ehrenborg, Coproducts and the $cd$-index\\[.2in]
\>2:00--5:00\> afternoon session (Michael Hawrylycz, chair)\\
\>2:00--2:30\> Steven Fisk\\
\>2:45--3:15\> Jack Freeman\\
%\>3:45--4:15\>
%\>4:30--5:00\>
\end{tabbing}
\end{document}


Date:           Wed, 17 Apr 1996 01:31:18 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Tesler, 4/24


Wednesday, April 24, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Glenn Tesler (U.C. San Diego)

Plethystic formulas for the
Macdonald q,t-Kostka coefficients

Macdonald introduced a two parameter symmetric function basis
P_\mu(x;q,t) for which various specializations of q and t yield
many of the other well-established bases.  The transition matrix
expressing a rescaled basis J_\mu(x;q,t) in terms of a modified
Schur basis s_\lambda[X(1-t)] has components denoted
K_{\lambda,\mu}(q,t), and generalizes the ordinary Kostka matrix.
Macdonald conjectured that K_{\lambda,mu}(q,t) are polynomials in
q and t with nonnegative integer coefficients.  We show that they
are polynomials by determining new explicit formulas for them.
These formulas separate the dependence on \mu and \lambda, and
surprisingly, their structure is entirely determined by a portion of
\lambda, and not at all on \mu.  These formulas are themselves
symmetric functions k_\gamma(x;q,t) indexed by partitions, where if
we set \gamma to be \lambda with its largest row deleted, then a
certain specialization B_\mu'' of x to q,t-monomials depending on
\mu essentially expresses K_{\lambda,\mu}(q,t) as k_\gamma(B_\mu;q,t).
The coefficients of k_gamma(x;q,t) when expressed in terms of
Schur functions are Laurent polynomials in q and t, so that
k_\gamma(B_\mu;q,t) is at least a Laurent polynomial, and the simple
monomial denominator is easily eliminated to yield a true polynomial.

This is joint work with Adriano Garsia.


Date:           Thu, 18 Apr 1996 07:54:50 -0400
To:             kcollins(at-sign)mail.wesleyan.edu
From:           kcollins(at-sign)wesleyan.edu (Karen L. Collins)
Subject:        after taxes


OK, now that your taxes are done, how about sending a problem for the
problem session to Mike Albertson (albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu).  See you
April 27.


Date:           Thu, 18 Apr 1996 07:56:49 -0400
To:             kcollins(at-sign)mail.wesleyan.edu
From:           kcollins(at-sign)wesleyan.edu (Karen L. Collins)


               Come to the TWENTIETH one day conference on

Combinatorics and Graph Theory

Saturday, April 27, 1996

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
at
Smith College
Northampton MA 01063

Schedule

10:00  Vera Pless (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Constraints on Weight in Binary Codes

11:10  Problem Session by Participants
Send in contributions by Thursday, April 25th

12:30  Pizza Lunch!!

2:00  Brenda Latka (DIMACS)
Forbidden Subtournaments and Antichains

3:10  Linda Lesniak (Drew University)
Tough Graph Theory

*Our three year NSF grant is ending this spring.  Looking at the
remaining budget, we have to reduce the transportation allowance
for non-local participants for the April 27th conference to $40 (from the usual$50).  We have applied for a renewal for another
3 years of grant support, and hope to hear soon from NSF.*

Our Web page site has directions to Smith College, abstracts of
speakers, dates of future conferences, and other information.

Michael Albertson (Smith College), (413) 585-3865,
albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu

Karen Collins (Wesleyan Univ.), (203) 685-2169,
kcollins(at-sign)wesleyan.edu

Ruth Haas (Smith College), (413) 585-3872,
rhaas(at-sign)smith.smith.edu


Date:           Fri, 19 Apr 1996 15:58:45 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Robins, 4/26


Friday, April 26, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Sinai Robins (U.C. San Diego)

The Ehrhart Polynomial of a Lattice Polytope

The problem of counting the number of lattice points inside a
lattice polytope in R^n has been studied from a variety of
perspectives, including the recent work of Pommersheim and
Kohvanskii using toric varieties and Cappell and Shaneson using
Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch.  Here we show that the Ehrhart
polynomial of a lattice n-simplex has a simple analytical
interpretation from the perspective of function theory on the
n-torus. The methods involve Poisson Summation and Fourier
integrals.

We obtain closed forms for the coefficients of the Ehrhart
polynomial in terms of the elementary cotangent functions.
These expressions are closely related to the formulas of
Cappell and Shaneson and Hirzebruch and Zagier.

This is joint work with Ricardo Diaz.


Date:           Tue, 23 Apr 1996 11:06:36 -0400
To:             kcollins(at-sign)mail.wesleyan.edu
From:           kcollins(at-sign)wesleyan.edu (Karen L. Collins)
Subject:        problem session


This is a final reminder.  Please send problems for the April 27th meeting
to Mike Albertson (albertson(at-sign)smith.smith.edu)


Date:           Wed, 24 Apr 1996 11:47:54 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        MIT Combinatorics Seminar: May schedule


Here is a list of talks currently scheduled for the month of May.
Notice that all talks will begin at 4:15 p.m.

Wednesday, May 1, 4:15 p.m.: Yuval Roichman,
A recursive rule for Kazhdan-Lusztig characters

Wednesday, May 8, 4:15 p.m.: Sergey Fomin,
Quantum Schubert polynomials
[followed by Discrete Dinner at 6 p.m.]

Friday, May 17, 4:15 p.m.: Frank Sottile,
Symmetries of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients for
Schubert polynomials

Wednesday, May 22, 4:15 p.m.: Rodney Baxter,
Star-triangle and star-star relations in statistical mechanics

All talks will meet in room 2-338.


Date:           Wed, 24 Apr 1996 11:48:54 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Roichman, 5/1


Wednesday, May 1, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Yuval Roichman (M.I.T.)

A recursive rule for Kazhdan-Lusztig characters

The Murnaghan-Nakayama rule is a most useful recursive rule
for computing characters of the symmetric groups.  We present
a generalization of this rule to arbitrary Coxeter groups and
their Hecke algebras.  The classical version is obtained as a
special case, and  new combinatorial interpretations follow.
The work is done via Kazhdan-Lusztig theory and combinatorics
of Coxeter groups.


Date:           Wed, 24 Apr 1996 16:15:25 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        MIT Combinatorics Seminar: May schedule (REVISED)


Here is a revised list of talks currently scheduled for the month of May.
Notice that a new talk has been added on May 15.

Wednesday, May 1, 4:15 p.m.: Yuval Roichman,
A recursive rule for Kazhdan-Lusztig characters

Wednesday, May 8, 4:15 p.m.: Sergey Fomin,
Quantum Schubert polynomials
[followed by Discrete Dinner at 6 p.m.]

Wednesday, May 15, 4:15 p.m.: Sara Billey,
Vexillary elements in the hyperoctahedral group

Friday, May 17, 4:15 p.m.: Frank Sottile,
Symmetries of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients for
Schubert polynomials

Wednesday, May 22, 4:15 p.m.: Rodney Baxter,
Star-triangle and star-star relations in statistical mechanics

All talks will meet in room 2-338.


Date:           Fri, 26 Apr 1996 00:19:39 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Discrete Dinner


		        Spring 1996 Boston Area
Discrete Mathematics Dinner
(second announcement)

This semester's Discrete Dinner will be held on Wednesday, May 8
at 6 p.m. at Helmand's Restaurant (143 First Street, Cambridge)
between Kendall Square and Lechmere.  The cost will be $10 for grad students and undergraduates (alcoholic beverages not included), with the rest of us making up the difference. Please let me know by May 1 (preferably electronically) your probability of attendance (if you haven't already done so). My e-mail address is propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu; if you don't have e-mail, call 253-6544.  Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 12:58:24 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Fomin, 5/8  Wednesday, May 8, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338 Sergey Fomin (M.I.T.) Quantum Schubert polynomials We compute the Gromov-Witten invariants of the flag manifold using a new combinatorial construction for its quantum cohomology ring. This is joint work with S. Gelfand and A. Postnikov. The paper is available from http://www-math.mit.edu/~fomin/papers.html  Date: Wed, 8 May 1996 22:38:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu> To: combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu Subject: Billey, 5/15  Wednesday, May 15, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338 Sara Billey (M.I.T.) Vexillary elements in the hyperoctahedral group The vexillary permutations in the symmetric group have interesting connections with the number of reduced words, the Littlewood-Richardson rule, Stanley symmetric functions, Schubert polynomials and the Schubert calculus. Lascoux and Schutzenberger have shown that vexillary permutations are characterized by the property that they avoid any subsequence of length 4 with the same relative order as 2143. In this talk, we will propose a definition for vexillary elements in the hyperoctahedral group. We show that the vexillary elements can again be determined by pattern avoidance conditions. These vexillary elements share some, but not all, of the "nice" properties of the vexillary permutations in$S_n\$.


Date:           Fri, 10 May 1996 14:18:25 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Sottile, 5/17


Friday, May 17, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Frank Sottile (Toronto)

Symmetries of Littlewood-Richardson
coefficients for Schubert polynomials

The Littlewood-Richardson rule is a combinatorial formula for
structure constants of the ring of symmetric polynomials
in terms of its Schur basis:

s_\mu \cdot s_\nu = \sum_\lambda c^\lambda_{\mu\,\nu} s_\lambda.

Schubert polynomials form a basis for the ring of polynomials in
infinitely many variables x_1,x_2,..., so there are similar
structure constants for Schubert polynomials, which I also call
Littlewood-Richardson coefficients.  These generalize the classical
coefficients, as every Schur polynomial in  x_1,...,x_k  is a
Schubert polynomial.  They are, however, largely unknown.

This talk will discuss recent results (obtained with Nantel Bergeron)
on those coefficients which arise when multiplying a Schubert polynomial
by a Schur polynomial.  We show these coefficients have certain
symmetries, similar to symmetries of the classical Littlewood-Richardson
coefficients, which facilitates their computation.  We apply these
results to the enumeration of chains in the strong Bruhat order on the
symmetric group.


Date:           Mon, 13 May 1996 23:11:50 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Billey, 5/15; CHANGE OF TIME


Sara Billey's MIT Combinatorics Seminar talk, entitled "Vexillary elements
in the hyperoctahedral group", will take place this coming Wednesday (May 15)
beginning at 5 p.m., rather than 4:15 as originally planned.  Sorry for any

Jim Propp


Date:           Wed, 15 May 1996 09:22:20 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Baxter, 5/22


Wednesday, May 22, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Rodney Baxter (Australian National University
and Northeastern University)

Star-triangle and star-star relations in statistical mechanics

The star-triangle is the simplest form of the Yang-Baxter'' relations
and plays a vital role in solvable statistical mechanical models,
ensuring that transfer matrices commute.

There are models for which no star-triangle relation is known, but
which satisfy a weaker star-star'' relation. These will be discussed,
and it will be shown that this weaker relation is still sufficient to
ensure the required commutation properties.


Date:           Sun, 19 May 1996 14:42:21 -0400 (EDT)
From:           Jim Propp <propp(at-sign)math.mit.edu>
To:             combinatorics(at-sign)math.mit.edu
Subject:        Shimozono, 5/24


Friday, May 24, 4:15 p.m.; MIT, room 2-338

Mark Shimozono (M.I.T.)

Monotonicity properties of q-analogues of
Littlewood-Richardson coefficients

Certain q-analogues of Littlewood-Richardson (LR) coefficients arise
naturally in the resolution of the ideal of a nilpotent conjugacy classes of
matrices in a larger nilpotent conjugacy class.  These polynomials may be
defined using a Kostant-Heckman formula.  A conjectural description
is given in terms of what we call catabolizable tableaux.  In the special
case of tensor products of irreducibles corresponding to rectangular
partitions, there is another conjectural combinatorial description using
classical LR tableaux and a generalization of Lascoux, Leclerc, and Thibon's
formula for the charge statistic.  Monotonicity properties of these
polynomials are studied using families of statistic-preserving injections.
Certain compositions of these injections furnish a bijection from the LR
tableaux to the catabolizables.  This is joint work, part with Jerzy Weyman
and part with Anatol N. Kirillov.