Peter Bürgisser ; Christian Ikenmeyer - A max-flow algorithm for positivity of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients

dmtcs:2749 - Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science, January 1, 2009, DMTCS Proceedings vol. AK, 21st International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC 2009) - https://doi.org/10.46298/dmtcs.2749
A max-flow algorithm for positivity of Littlewood-Richardson coefficientsArticle

Authors: Peter Bürgisser 1; Christian Ikenmeyer 1

  • 1 Mathematisches Institut der Universität Paderborn

Littlewood-Richardson coefficients are the multiplicities in the tensor product decomposition of two irreducible representations of the general linear group $\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})$. They have a wide variety of interpretations in combinatorics, representation theory and geometry. Mulmuley and Sohoni pointed out that it is possible to decide the positivity of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients in polynomial time. This follows by combining the saturation property of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients (shown by Knutson and Tao 1999) with the well-known fact that linear optimization is solvable in polynomial time. We design an explicit $\textit{combinatorial}$ polynomial time algorithm for deciding the positivity of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. This algorithm is highly adapted to the problem and it is based on ideas from the theory of optimizing flows in networks.


Volume: DMTCS Proceedings vol. AK, 21st International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC 2009)
Section: Proceedings
Published on: January 1, 2009
Imported on: January 31, 2017
Keywords: Littlewood-Richardson coefficients,saturation conjecture,flows in network,polynomial time,[MATH.MATH-CO] Mathematics [math]/Combinatorics [math.CO],[INFO.INFO-DM] Computer Science [cs]/Discrete Mathematics [cs.DM]

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