On the Combinatorics of Crystal Graphs, I. Lusztig's Involution

In this paper, we continue the development of a new combinatorial model for the irreducible characters of a complex semisimple Lie group. This model, which will be referred to as the alcove path model, can be viewed as a discrete counterpart to the Littelmann path model. It leads to an extensive generalization of the combinatorics of irreducible characters from Lie type A (where the combinatorics is based on Young tableaux, for instance) to arbitrary type. The main results of this paper are: (1) a combinatorial description of the crystal graphs corresponding to the irreducible representations (this result includes a transparent proof, based on the Yang-Baxter equation, of the fact that the mentioned description does not depend on the choice involved in our model); (2) a combinatorial realization of Lusztig's involution on the canonical basis (this involution exhibits the crystals as self-dual posets, corresponds to the action of the longest Weyl group element on an irreducible representation, and generalizes Schutzenberger's involution on tableaux); (3) an analog for arbitrary root systems, based on the Yang-Baxter equation, of Schutzenberger's sliding algorithm, which is also known as jeu de taquin (this algorithm has many applications to the representation theory of the Lie algebra of type A).