Combinatorics of Schubert Polynomials
In this thesis, we study several aspects of the combinatorics of various important families of polynomials, particularly focusing on Schubert polynomials. Schubert polynomials arise as distinguished representatives of cohomology classes in the cohomology ring of the flag variety. As polynomials, they enjoy a rich and well-studied combinatorics. Through joint works with Fink and Mészáros, we connect the supports of Schubert polynomials to a class of polytopes called generalized permutahedra. Through a realization of Schubert polynomials as characters of flagged Weyl modules, we show that the exponents of a Schubert polynomial are exactly the integer points in a generalized permutahedron. We also prove a combinatorial description of this permutahedron. We then study characters of flagged Weyl modules more generally and give an interesting inequality on their coefficients. We next shift our focus onto the coefficients of Schubert polynomials. We describe a construction due to Magyar called orthodontia. We use orthodontia together with the previous inequality for characters to give a complete description of the Schubert polynomials that have only zero and one as coefficients. Through joint work with Huh, Matherne, and Mészáros, we next show a discrete log-concavity property of the coefficients of Schubert polynomials. The main tool for this purpose is the Lorentzian property introduced by Brändén and Huh. We prove that something similar to Schubert polynomials is Lorentzian. We extract from this the discrete log-concavity of Schubert polynomials and the Lorentzian property of Schur polynomials. We finish with various conjectures and partial results regarding other families of polynomials.