On the combinatorial structure of crystals of types A,B,C

Vladimir Danilov, Alexander Karzanov, Gleb Koshevoy

Published 2012-01-22, updated 2012-08-15Version 3

Regular $A_n$-, $B_n$- and $C_n$-crystals are edge-colored directed graphs, with ordered colors $1,2,...,n$, which are related to representations of quantized algebras $U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_{n+1})$, $U_q(\mathfrak{sp}_{2n})$ and $U_q(\mathfrak{so}_{2n+1})$, respectively. We develop combinatorial methods to reveal refined structural properties of such objects. Firstly, we study subcrystals of a regular $A_n$-crystal $K$ and characterize pairwise intersections of maximal subcrystals with colors $1,...,n-1$ and colors $2,...,n$. This leads to a recursive description of the structure of $K$ and provides an efficient procedure of assembling $K$. Secondly, using merely combinatorial means, we demonstrate a relationship between regular $B_n$-crystals (resp. $C_n$-crystals) and regular symmetric $A_{2n-1}$-crystals (resp. $A_{2n}$-crystals).