Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials
Arun Ram 
Department of Mathematics and Statistics 
University of Melbourne 
Parkville, VIC 3010 Australia 
aram@unimelb.edu.au
Last update: 6 November 2012
Bar invariant bases
Let  be a poset such that for 
 the interval 
 is finite. Let  be the free 
 modules with basis 
 
and let  be a 
 involution such that
where  
Then
- 
There is a unique basis 
 
such that 
 
- 
There is a unique basis 
 
such that 
 
  | 
  | 
Proof. | 
 | 
 
(a) The  are determined by induction:
 
where
 
(b) The  are determined by induction:
 
where
 
 | 
The dual module
is given a bar involution
If  
is the dual basis to  
then
so that  If 
 
is the dual basis to  
then
and
so that
The affine Hecke algebra
The affine Hecke algebra  has 
 basis 
with relations
The algebra  also has bases
where
if  with 
The bar involution on  is the 
 map 
 
given by
Define elements  by
and let
- 
 
for 
 
- 
 
and 
 
- 
If  then 
 
- 
 
The  are given by
Then
- 
 
- 
 
- 
 
The shift operator is
Then
The  on  
is the linear map  
given by
Define an inner product  by
so that
The generic degrees are  given by
The Kazhdan-Lusztig basis is defined by
or by the usual bar invariance and triangularity conditions.
Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials
The Iwahori-Hecke algebra is the algebra over  given by 
generators   and relations 
The bar involution on  is the  involution given by
for  The Kazhdan-Lusztig basis of  is the basis 
 
given by
- 
 and
 
- 
 
Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials
- 
 
- 
 
if 
 
- 
 
if 
 
Define
which is the term of degree 
 
Then, if 
The  has
- 
Vertices: 
 
- 
Edges:  if 
 
Then
Define a relation  by taking the closure of the relation
and define
The case of dihedral groups
In type 
So
since
In type  
 
and
so that
Note that 
 
Then, using that  
to produce the matrices for the regular representation in the KL-basis,
with rows and columns indexed by 
In type  
 
and
where
and the matrices of the regular representation in the KL-basis are
with rows and columns indexed by 
Let  be the dihedral group of order  Then
  | 
  | 
Proof. | 
 | 
 
Let  be defined by the formula in the statement of the Theorem. If 
 so that 
 
then
 
and, if  so that 
 
then let  and 
 
so that
 
So,
 
In the first case,  
and so, by induction, 
 
is bar invariant.
 
 | 
From equation (???)
For example, in the case 
and the matrices of the regular representation in the KL-basis are
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