Degenerate two-boundary centralizer algebras

Zajj Daugherty

Published 2010-07-22, updated 2011-08-30Version 4

Diagram algebras (e.g. graded braid groups, Hecke algebras, Brauer algebras) arise as tensor power centralizer algebras, algebras of commuting operators for a Lie algebra action on a tensor space. This work explores centralizers of the action of a complex reductive Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ on tensor space of the form $M \otimes N \otimes V^{\otimes k}$. We define the degenerate two-boundary braid algebra $\mathcal{G}_k$ and show that centralizer algebras contain quotients of this algebra in a general setting. As an example, we study in detail the combinatorics of special cases corresponding to Lie algebras $\mathfrak{gl}_n$ and $\mathfrak{sl}_n$ and modules $M$ and $N$ indexed by rectangular partitions. For this setting, we define the degenerate extended two-boundary Hecke algebra $\mathcal{H}_k^{\mathrm{ext}}$ as a quotient of $\mathcal{G}_k$, and show that a quotient of $\mathcal{H}_k^{\mathrm{ext}}$ is isomorphic to a large subalgebra of the centralizer. We further study the representation theory of $\mathcal{H}_k^{\mathrm{ext}}$ to find that the seminormal representations are indexed by a known family of partitions. The bases for the resulting modules are given by paths in a lattice of partitions, and the action of $\mathcal{H}_k^{\mathrm{ext}}$ is given by combinatorial formulas.