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The Ehrhart polynomial and Ehrhart series count lattice points in integer dilations of a lattice polytope. We introduce and study a $q$-deformation of the Ehrhart series, based on the notions of harmonic spaces and Macaulay's inverse systems for coordinate rings of finite point configurations. We conjecture that this $q$-Ehrhart series is a rational function, and introduce and study a bigraded algebra whose Hilbert series matches the $q$-Ehrhart series. Defining this algebra requires a new result on Macaulay inverse systems for Minkowski sums of point configurations., Comment: 61 pages. Version 3: This version features a streamlined proof of Theorem 1.4, based on a suggestion of Ian Cavey

Supersolvable hyperplane arrangements and matroids are known to give rise to certain Koszul algebras, namely their Orlik-Solomon algebras and graded Varchenko-Gel'fand algebras. We explore how this interacts with group actions, particularly for the braid arrangement and the action of the symmetric group, where the Hilbert functions of the algebras and their Koszul duals are given by Stirling numbers of the first and second kinds, respectively. The corresponding symmetric group representations exhibit branching rules that interpret Stirling number recurrences, which are shown to apply to all supersolvable arrangements. They also enjoy representation stability properties that follow from Koszul duality., Comment: References added, some typos corrected, and contact information updated

Sandpile groups are a subtle graph isomorphism invariant, in the form of a finite abelian group, whose cardinality is the number of spanning trees in the graph. We study their group structure for graphs obtained by attaching a cone vertex to a tree. For example, it is shown that the number of generators of the sandpile group is at most one less than the number of leaves in the tree. For trees on a fixed number of vertices, the paths and stars are shown to provide extreme behavior, not only for the number of generators, but also for the number of spanning trees, and for Tutte polynomial evaluations that count the recurrent sandpile configurations by their numbers of chips., Comment: Version to appear in Research in the Mathematical Sciences

Given a matroid and a group of its matroid automorphisms, we study the induced group action on the Chow ring of the matroid. This turns out to always be a permutation action. Work of Adiprasito, Huh and Katz showed that the Chow ring satisfies Poincar\'e duality and the Hard Lefschetz theorem. We lift these to statements about this permutation action, and suggest further conjectures in this vein., Comment: Version to appear in J. Lond. Math. Soc

Working in a polynomial ring $S=\mathbf{k}[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ where $\mathbf{k}$ is an arbitrary commutative ring with $1$, we consider the $d^{th}$ Veronese subalgebras $R=S^{(d)}$, as well as natural $R$-submodules $M=S^{(\geq r, d)}$ inside $S$. We develop and use characteristic-free theory of Schur functors associated to ribbon skew diagrams as a tool to construct simple $GL_n(\mathbf{k})$-equivariant minimal free $R$-resolutions for the quotient ring $\mathbf{k}=R/R_+$ and for these modules $M$. These also lead to elegant descriptions of $\mathrm{Tor}^R_i(M,M')$ for all $i$ and $\mathrm{Hom}_R(M,M')$ for any pair of these modules $M,M'$., Comment: 37 pages. Further minor edits. Version to appear in J. London Math. Soc

We examine from an invariant theory viewpoint the monoid algebras for two monoids having large symmetry groups. The first monoid is the free left-regular band on $n$ letters, defined on the set of all injective words, that is, the words with at most one occurrence of each letter. This monoid carries the action of the symmetric group. The second monoid is one of its $q$-analogues, considered by K. Brown, carrying an action of the finite general linear group. In both cases, we show that the invariant subalgebras are semisimple commutative algebras, and characterize them using Stirling and $q$-Stirling numbers. We then use results from the theory of random walks and random-to-top shuffling to decompose the entire monoid algebra into irreducibles, simultaneously as a module over the invariant ring and as a group representation. Our irreducible decompositions are described in terms of derangement symmetric functions introduced by D\'esarm\'enien and Wachs., Comment: final version, to appear in the Pacific Journal of Mathematics

The augmented Bergman complex of a matroid is a simplicial complex introduced recently in work of Braden, Huh, Matherne, Proudfoot and Wang. It may be viewed as a hybrid of two well-studied pure shellable simplicial complexes associated to matroids: the independent set complex and Bergman complex. It is shown here that the augmented Bergman complex is also shellable, via two different families of shelling orders. Furthermore, comparing the description of its homotopy type induced from the two shellings re-interprets a known convolution formula counting bases of the matroid. The representation of the automorphism group of the matroid on the homology of the augmented Bergman complex turns out to have a surprisingly simple description. This last fact is generalized to closures beyond those coming from a matroid., Comment: Very minor edits

This report formulates a conjectural combinatorial rule that positively expands Grothendieck polynomials into Lascoux polynomials. It generalizes one such formula expanding Schubert polynomials into key polynomials, and refines another one expanding stable Grothendieck polynomials., Comment: 9 pages

This paper studies, for a positive integer $m$, the subalgebra of the cohomology ring of the complex Grassmannians generated by the elements of degree at most $m$. We build in two ways upon a conjecture for the Hilbert series of this subalgebra due to Reiner and Tudose. The first reinterprets it in terms of the operation of $k$-conjugation, suggesting two conjectural bases for the subalgebras that would imply their conjecture. The second introduces an analogous conjecture for the cohomology of Lagrangian Grassmannians., Comment: Version to appear in Involve

This paper has two related parts. The first generalizes Hochster's formula on resolutions of Stanley-Reisner rings to a colorful version, applicable to any proper vertex-coloring of a simplicial complex. The second part examines a universal system of parameters for Stanley-Reisner rings of simplicial complexes, and more generally, face rings of simplicial posets. These parameters have good properties, including being fixed under symmetries, and detecting depth of the face ring. Moreover, when resolving the face ring over these parameters, the shape is predicted, conjecturally, by the colorful Hochster formula., Comment: Version to appear in J. Commutative Algebra

Prompted by a question of Jim Propp, this paper examines the cyclic sieving phenomenon (CSP) in certain cyclic codes. For example, it is shown that, among dual Hamming codes over $F_q$, the generating function for codedwords according to the major index statistic (resp. the inversion statistic) gives rise to a CSP when $q=2$ or $q=3$ (resp. when $q=2$). A byproduct is a curious characterization of the irreducible polynomials in $F_2[x]$ and $F_3[x]$ that are primitive.

V.F. Molchanov considered the Hilbert series for the space of invariant skew-symmetric tensors and dual tensors with polynomial coefficients under the action of a real reflection group, and speculated that it had a certain product formula involving the exponents of the group. We show that Molchanov's speculation is false in general but holds for all coincidental complex reflection groups when appropriately modified using exponents and co-exponents. These are the irreducible well-generated (i.e., duality) reflection groups with exponents forming an arithmetic progression and include many real reflection groups and all non-real Shephard groups, e.g., the Shephard-Todd infinite family $G(d,1,n)$. We highlight consequences for the $q$-Narayana and $q$-Kirkman polynomials, giving simple product formulas for both, and give a $q$-analogue of the identity transforming the $h$-vector to the $f$-vector for the coincidental finite type cluster/Cambrian complexes of Fomin--Zelevinsky and Reading., Comment: Version 2 fixed some typos, added results of K. Koike, and completed Hilbert series calculations for all irreducible reflection groups

Hyperplane arrangements dissect $\mathbb{R}^n$ into connected components called chambers, and a well-known theorem of Zaslavsky counts chambers as a sum of nonnegative integers called Whitney numbers of the first kind. His theorem generalizes to count chambers within any cone defined as the intersection of a collection of halfspaces from the arrangement, leading to a notion of Whitney numbers for each cone. This paper focuses on cones within the braid arrangement, consisting of the reflecting hyperplanes $x_i=x_j$ inside $\mathbb{R}^n$ for the symmetric group, thought of as the type $A_{n-1}$ reflection group. Here cones correspond to posets, chambers within the cone correspond to linear extensions of the poset, and the Whitney numbers of the cone interestingly refine the number of linear extensions of the poset. We interpret this refinement for all posets as counting linear extensions according to a statistic that generalizes the number of left-to-right maxima of a permutation. When the poset is a disjoint union of chains, we interpret this refinement differently, using Foata's theory of cycle decomposition for multiset permutations, leading to a simple generating function compiling these Whitney numbers., Comment: Historical references added; version to appear in ORDER

The ring of cyclic quasi-symmetric functions and its non-Escher subring are introduced in this paper. A natural basis consists of fundamental cyclic quasi-symmetric functions; for the non-Escher subring they arise as toric $P$-partition enumerators, for toric posets $P$ with a total cyclic order. The associated structure constants are determined by cyclic shuffles of permutations. We then prove the following positivity phenomenon: for every non-hook shape $\lambda$, the coefficients in the expansion of the Schur function $s_\lambda$ in terms of fundamental cyclic quasi-symmetric functions are nonnegative. The proof relies on the existence of a cyclic descent map on the standard Young tableaux (SYT) of shape $\lambda$. The theory has applications to the enumeration of cyclic shuffles and SYT by cyclic descents., Comment: 38 pages, added references and updated last section

Monotone triangles are a rich extension of permutations that biject with alternating sign matrices. The notions of weak order and descent sets for permutations are generalized here to monotone triangles, and shown to enjoy many analogous properties. It is shown that any linear extension of the weak order gives rise to a shelling order on a poset, recently introduced by Terwilliger, whose maximal chains biject with monotone triangles; among these shellings are a family of EL-shellings. The weak order turns out to encode an action of the 0-Hecke monoid of type A on the monotone triangles, generalizing the usual bubble-sorting action on permutations. It also leads to a notion of descent set for monotone triangles, having another natural property: the surjective algebra map from the Malvenuto- Reutenauer Hopf algebra of permutations into quasisymmetric functions extends in a natural way to an algebra map out of the recently-defined Cheballah-Giraudo-Maurice algebra of alternating sign matrices., Comment: 21 pages

S. Whitehouse's lifts of the Eulerian representations of $S_n$ to $S_{n+1}$ are reinterpreted, topologically and ring-theoretically, building on the first author's work on A. Ocneanu's theory of permutohedral blades., Comment: Exposition improved; proof of Proposition 6 added. To appear in The Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra

The notion of descent set, for permutations as well as for standard Young tableaux (SYT), is classical. Cellini introduced a natural notion of {\em cyclic descent set} for permutations, and Rhoades introduced such a notion for SYT --- but only for rectangular shapes. In this work we define {\em cyclic extensions} of descent sets in a general context, and prove existence and essential uniqueness for SYT of almost all shapes. The proof applies nonnegativity properties of Postnikov's toric Schur polynomials, providing a new interpretation of certain Gromov-Witten invariants., Comment: 31 pages, minor changes

We show that the Koszul homology algebra of the second Veronese subalgebra of a polynomial ring over a field of characteristic zero is generated, as an algebra, by the homology classes corresponding to the syzygies of the lowest linear strand., Comment: 7 pages

For well-generated complex reflection groups, Chapuy and Stump gave a simple product for a generating function counting reflection factorizations of a Coxeter element by their length. This is refined here to record the number of reflections used from each orbit of hyperplanes. The proof is case-by-case via the classification of well-generated groups. It implies a new expression for the Coxeter number, expressed via data coming from a hyperplane orbit; a case-free proof of this due to J. Michel is included.

This paper considers an invariant of modules over a finite-dimensional Hopf algebra, called the critical group. This generalizes the critical groups of complex finite group representations studied by Benkart, Klivans, Reiner and Gaetz. A formula is given for the cardinality of the critical group generally, and the critical group for the regular representation is described completely. A key role in the formulas is played by the greatest common divisor of the dimensions of the indecomposable projective representations., Comment: 24 pages. Comments are welcome! The ancillary file is a longer version with some more details and alternative proofs (compiled from the same source). The version on http://www.cip.ifi.lmu.de/~grinberg/algebra/ will probably get quicker updates. v3: Minor corrections

Classical invariant theory of a complex reflection group $W$ highlights three beautiful structures: -- the $W$-invariant polynomials constitute a polynomial algebra, over which -- the $W$-invariant differential forms with polynomial coefficients constitute an exterior algebra, and -- the relative invariants of any $W$-representation constitute a free module. When $W$ is a duality (or well-generated) group, we give an explicit description of the isotypic component within the differential forms of the irreducible reflection representation. This resolves a conjecture of Armstrong, Rhoades and the first author, and relates to Lie-theoretic conjectures and results of Bazlov, Broer, Joseph, Reeder, and Stembridge, and also Deconcini, Papi, and Procesi. We establish this result by examining the space of $W$-invariant differential derivations; these are derivations whose coefficients are not just polynomials, but differential forms with polynomial coefficients. For every complex reflection group $W$, we show that the space of invariant differential derivations is finitely generated as a module over the invariant differential forms by the basic derivations together with their exterior derivatives. When $W$ is a duality group, we show that the space of invariant differential derivations is free as a module over the exterior subalgebra of $W$-invariant forms generated by all but the top-degree exterior generator. (The basic invariant of highest degree is omitted.) Our arguments for duality groups are case-free, i.e., they do not rely on any reflection group classification., Comment: Minor revisions; version to appear in Proc. Lond. Math. Soc

The paper concerns a definition for $q$-Kreweras numbers for finite Weyl groups $W$, refining the $q$-Catalan numbers for $W$, and arising from work of the second author. We give explicit formulas in all types for the $q$-Kreweras numbers. In the classical types $A, B, C$, we also record formulas for the $q$-Narayana numbers and in the process show that the formulas depend only on the Weyl group (that is, they coincide in types $B$ and $C$). In addition we verify that in the classical types $A,B,C,D$ that the $q$-Kreweras numbers obey the expected cyclic sieving phenomena when evaluated at appropriate roots of unity., Comment: 39 pages. Minor revisions, and more precise version of Theorem 1.6

In certain finite posets, the expected down-degree of their elements is the same whether computed with respect to either the uniform distribution or the distribution weighting an element by the number of maximal chains passing through it. We show that this coincidence of expectations holds for Cartesian products of chains, connected minuscule posets, weak Bruhat orders on finite Coxeter groups, certain lower intervals in Young's lattice, and certain lower intervals in the weak Bruhat order below dominant permutations. Our tools involve formulas for counting nearly reduced factorizations in 0-Hecke algebras; that is, factorizations that are one letter longer than the Coxeter group length., Comment: to appear in Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A

In a finite real reflection group, two factorizations of a Coxeter element into an arbitrary number of reflections are shown to lie in the same orbit under the Hurwitz action if and only if they use the same multiset of conjugacy classes. The proof makes use of a surprising lemma, derived from a classification of the minimal linear dependences (matroid circuits) in finite root systems: any set of roots forming a minimal linear dependence with positive coefficients has a disconnected graph of pairwise acuteness., Comment: 18 pages, one attached figure and six auxiliary data files. v2: minor changes

Two classes of avalanche-finite matrices and their critical groups (integer cokernels) are studied from the viewpoint of chip-firing/sandpile dynamics, namely, the Cartan matrices of finite root systems and the McKay-Cartan matrices for finite subgroups G of general linear groups. In the root system case, the recurrent and superstable configurations are identified explicitly and are related to minuscule dominant weights. In the McKay-Cartan case for finite subgroups of the special linear group, the cokernel is related to the abelianization of the subgroup G. In the special case of the classical McKay correspondence, the critical group and the abelianization are shown to be isomorphic.

This paper studies a partial order on the general linear group GL(V) called the absolute order, derived from viewing GL(V) as a group generated by reflections, that is, elements whose fixed space has codimension one. The absolute order on GL(V) is shown to have two equivalent descriptions, one via additivity of length for factorizations into reflections, the other via additivity of fixed space codimensions. Other general properties of the order are derived, including self-duality of its intervals. Working over a finite field F_q, it is shown via a complex character computation that the poset interval from the identity to a Singer cycle (or any regular elliptic element) in GL_n(F_q) has a strikingly simple formula for the number of chains passing through a prescribed set of ranks., Comment: 26 pages. v2: Minor edits; Question 6.3 and some references added

This paper studies representation stability in the sense of Church and Farb for representations of the symmetric group $S_n$ on the cohomology of the configuration space of $n$ ordered points in $\mathbf{R}^d$. This cohomology is known to vanish outside of dimensions divisible by $d-1$; it is shown here that the $S_n$-representation on the $i(d-1)^{st}$ cohomology stabilizes sharply at $n=3i$ (resp. $n=3i+1$) when $d$ is odd (resp. even). The result comes from analyzing $S_n$-representations known to control the cohomology: the Whitney homology of set partition lattices for $d$ even, and the higher Lie representations for $d$ odd. A similar analysis shows that the homology of any rank-selected subposet in the partition lattice stabilizes by $n\geq 4i$, where $i$ is the maximum rank selected. Further properties of the Whitney homology and more refined stability statements for $S_n$-isotypic components are also proven, including conjectures of J. Wiltshire-Gordon., Comment: Fixed typos, reorganized slightly, and added Remark 3.5 on improved power-saving bound

These notes -- originating from a one-semester class by their second author at the University of Minnesota -- survey some of the most important Hopf algebras appearing in combinatorics. After introducing coalgebras, bialgebras and Hopf algebras in general, we study the Hopf algebra of symmetric functions, including Zelevinsky's axiomatic characterization of it as a "positive self-adjoint Hopf algebra" and its application to the representation theory of symmetric and (briefly) finite general linear groups. The notes then continue with the quasisymmetric and the noncommutative symmetric functions, some Hopf algebras formed from graphs, posets and matroids, and the Malvenuto-Reutenauer Hopf algebra of permutations. Among the results surveyed are the Littlewood-Richardson rule and other symmetric function identities, Zelevinsky's structure theorem for PSHs, the antipode formula for P-partition enumerators, the Aguiar-Bergeron-Sottile universal property of QSym, the theory of Lyndon words, the Gessel-Reutenauer bijection, and Hazewinkel's polynomial freeness of QSym. The notes are written with a graduate student reader in mind, being mostly self-contained but requiring a good familiarity with multilinear algebra and -- for the representation-theory applications -- basic group representation theory., Comment: 282 pages. The version on my website (http://www.cip.ifi.lmu.de/~grinberg/algebra/HopfComb.pdf) is likely to be updated more frequently. Solutions to the exercises can be found in http://www.cip.ifi.lmu.de/~grinberg/algebra/HopfComb-sols.pdf , or as an ancillary file here. Version v7 has more details, a few more exercises and fewer errors. Comments are welcome!

Given an irreducible well-generated complex reflection group W with Coxeter number h, we call a Coxeter element any regular element (in the sense of Springer) of order h in W; this is a slight extension of the most common notion of Coxeter element. We show that the class of these Coxeter elements forms a single orbit in W under the action of reflection automorphisms. For Coxeter and Shephard groups, this implies that an element c is a Coxeter element if and only if there exists a simple system S of reflections such that c is the product of the generators in S. We moreover deduce multiple further implications of this property. In particular, we obtain that all noncrossing partition lattices of W associated to different Coxeter elements are isomorphic. We also prove that there is a simply transitive action of the Galois group of the field of definition of W on the set of conjugacy classes of Coxeter elements. Finally, we extend several of these properties to Springer's regular elements of arbitrary order., Comment: v2: 22 pages. Added Figure for Example 1.2; minor corrections in Section 2.2; added Remark 4.4; other minor changes, results unchanged

Conjectures are given for Hilbert series related to polynomial invariants of finite general linear groups, one for invariants mod Frobenius powers of the irrelevant ideal, one for cofixed spaces of polynomials., Comment: 28 pages. v2: Added references, and altered discussion in Section 5.3 on module structure of G-cofixed space over G-fixed subalgebra. v3: final version, to appear in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh A

The pseudodeterminant $\textrm{pdet}(M)$ of a square matrix is the last nonzero coefficient in its characteristic polynomial; for a nonsingular matrix, this is just the determinant. If $\partial$ is a symmetric or skew-symmetric matrix then $\textrm{pdet}(\partial\partial^t)=\textrm{pdet}(\partial)^2$. Whenever $\partial$ is the $k^{th}$ boundary map of a self-dual CW-complex $X$, this linear-algebraic identity implies that the torsion-weighted generating function for cellular $k$-trees in $X$ is a perfect square. In the case that $X$ is an \emph{antipodally} self-dual CW-sphere of odd dimension, the pseudodeterminant of its $k$th cellular boundary map can be interpreted directly as a torsion-weighted generating function both for $k$-trees and for $(k-1)$-trees, complementing the analogous result for even-dimensional spheres given by the second author. The argument relies on the topological fact that any self-dual even-dimensional CW-ball can be oriented so that its middle boundary map is skew-symmetric., Comment: Final version; minor revisions. To appear in Journal of Combinatorics

The number of shortest factorizations into reflections for a Singer cycle in GL_n(F_q) is shown to be (q^n-1)^(n - 1). Formulas counting factorizations of any length, and counting those with reflections of fixed conjugacy classes are also given. The method is a standard character-theory technique, requiring the compilation of irreducible character values for Singer cycles, semisimple reflections, and transvections. The results suggest several open problems and questions, which are discussed at the end., Comment: Historical references added; final version to appear in J. Algebraic Combinatorics

Graph coverings are known to induce surjections of their critical groups. Here we describe the kernels of these morphisms in terms of data parametrizing the covering. Regular coverings are parametrized by voltage graphs, and the above kernel can be identified with a naturally defined voltage graph critical group. For double covers, the voltage graph is a signed graph, and the theory takes a particularly pleasant form, leading also to a theory of double covers of signed graphs., Comment: Version 3 fixes a typo, and adds some details in the proof of Theorem 1.1

We define toric partial orders, corresponding to regions of graphic toric hyperplane arrangements, just as ordinary partial orders correspond to regions of graphic hyperplane arrangements. Combinatorially, toric posets correspond to finite posets under the equivalence relation generated by converting minimal elements into maximal elements, or sources into sinks. We derive toric analogues for several features of ordinary partial orders, such as chains, antichains, transitivity, Hasse diagrams, linear extensions, and total orders., Comment: 18 pages

We prove a version of Gauss's Lemma. It recursively constructs polynomials {c_k} for k=0,1,...,m+n, in Z[a_i,A_i,b_j,B_j] for i=0,...,m, and j=0,1,...,n, having degree at most (m+n choose m) in each of the four variable sets, such that whenever {A_i},{B_j},{C_k} are the coefficients of polynomials A(X),B(X),C(X) with C(X)=A(X)B(X) and 1 = a_0 A_0 +...+ a_m A_m = b_0 B_0 +...+ b_n B_n, then one also has 1 = c_0 C_0 +...+ c_{m+n} C_{m+n}., Comment: Minor edits; version to appear in J. Commutative Algebra

Let $W$ be a Weyl group with root lattice $Q$ and Coxeter number $h$. The elements of the finite torus $Q/(h+1)Q$ are called the $W$-{\sf parking functions}, and we call the permutation representation of $W$ on the set of $W$-parking functions the (standard) $W$-{\sf parking space}. Parking spaces have interesting connections to enumerative combinatorics, diagonal harmonics, and rational Cherednik algebras. In this paper we define two new $W$-parking spaces, called the {\sf noncrossing parking space} and the {\sf algebraic parking space}, with the following features: 1) They are defined more generally for real reflection groups. 2) They carry not just $W$-actions, but $W\times C$-actions, where $C$ is the cyclic subgroup of $W$ generated by a Coxeter element. 3) In the crystallographic case, both are isomorphic to the standard $W$-parking space. Our Main Conjecture is that the two new parking spaces are isomorphic to each other as permutation representations of $W\times C$. This conjecture ties together several threads in the Catalan combinatorics of finite reflection groups. We provide evidence for the conjecture, proofs of some special cases, and suggest further directions for the theory., Comment: 49 pages, 10 figures, Version to appear in Advances in Mathematics

A finite irreducible real reflection group of rank l and Coxeter number h has root system of cardinality h*l. It is shown that the fake degree for the permutation action on its roots is divisible by [h]_q = 1+q+q^2+...+q^{h-1}, and that in simply-laced types, it equals [h]_q times the summation of q^{e_i - 1} where e_i runs through the exponents, so that e_i - 1 are the codegrees., Comment: Added discussion of overlap with prior work by J. Stembridge

Interpretations for the q-binomial coefficient evaluated at -q are discussed. A (q,t)-version is established, including an instance of a cyclic sieving phenomenon involving unitary spaces.

Bjoerner and Wachs provided two q-generalizations of Knuth's hook formula counting linear extensions of forests: one involving the major index statistic, and one involving the inversion number statistic. We prove a multivariate generalization of their inversion number result, motivated by specializations related to the modular invariant theory of finite general linear groups.

We compare a traditional and non-traditional view on the subject of P-partitions, leading to formulas counting linear extensions of certain posets., Comment: 34 pages; we corrected a minor mistake in the definition of the monomial ordering (Section 6); to appear in J. Commutative Algebra

(Abridged abstract) For a finite real reflection group W and a W-orbit O of flats in its reflection arrangement---or equivalently a conjugacy class of its parabolic subgroups---we introduce a statistic on elements of W. We then study the operator of right-multiplication within the group algebra of W by the element whose coefficients are given by this statistic. We reinterpret the operators geometrically in terms of the arrangement of reflecting hyperplanes for W. We show that they are self-adjoint and positive semidefinite. via two explicit factorizations into a symmetrized form A^t A. In one such factorization, A is a generalization of the projection of a simplex onto the linear ordering polytope. In the other factorization, A is the transition matrix for one of the well-studied Bidigare-Hanlon-Rockmore random walks on the chambers of an arrangement. We study the family of operators in which O is the conjugacy classes of Young subgroups of type (k,1^{n-k}). A special case within this family is the operator corresponding to random-to-random shuffling. We show in a purely enumerative fashion that these operators pairwise commute. We furthermore conjecture that they have integer spectrum, generalizing a conjecture of Uyemura-Reyes for the case k=n-1. We use representation theory to show that if O is a conjugacy class of rank one parabolics in W, the corresponding operator has integer spectrum. Our proof makes use of an (apparently) new family of twisted Gelfand pairs for W. We also study the family of operators in which O is the conjugacy classes of Young subgroups of type (2^k,1^{n-2k}). Here the construction of a Gelfand model for the symmetric group shows that these operators pairwise commute and that they have integer spectrum. For the symmetric group, we conjecture that apart from the two commuting families above, no other pair of operators of this form commutes., Comment: 105 pages, 14 figures; results in Chapter 3 improved; references to work of P. Renteln added

We interpret the coefficients of the cyclotomic polynomial in terms of simplicial homology., Comment: 18 pages. Revision fixing misstated version of Theorem 21, as pointed out by Giacomo Condro

The geometric and algebraic theory of valuations on cones is applied to understand identities involving summing certain rational functions over the set of linear extensions of a poset., Comment: 33 pages

We show how to derive new instances of the cyclic sieving phenomenon from old ones via elementary representation theory. Examples are given involving objects such as words, parking functions, finite fields, and graphs., Comment: 18 pages, typos fixed, to appear in SIAM J. Discrete Math