Tensor diagrams and cluster algebras

Sergey Fomin, Pavlo Pylyavskyy

Published 2012-10-05, updated 2014-12-08Version 3

The rings of SL(V) invariants of configurations of vectors and linear forms in a finite-dimensional complex vector space V were explicitly described by Hermann Weyl in the 1930s. We show that when V is 3-dimensional, each of these rings carries a natural cluster algebra structure (typically, many of them) whose cluster variables include Weyl's generators. We describe and explore these cluster structures using the combinatorial machinery of tensor diagrams. A key role is played by the web bases introduced by G.Kuperberg.