A Bott-Borel-Weil Theorem for Diagonal Ind-groups

http://dx.doi.org/10.4153/CJM-2011-032-6
Canad. J. Math. 63(2011), 1307-1327

  Published:2011-05-17
 Printed: Dec 2011

A diagonal ind-group is a direct limit of classical affine algebraic groups of growing rank under a class of inclusions that contains the inclusion $$ SL(n)\to SL(2n), \quad M\mapsto \begin{pmatrix}M & 0 \\ 0 & M \end{pmatrix} $$ as a typical special case. If $G$ is a diagonal ind-group and $B\subset G$ is a Borel ind-subgroup, we consider the ind-variety $G/B$ and compute the cohomology $H^\ell(G/B,\mathcal{O}_{-\lambda})$ of any $G$-equivariant line bundle $\mathcal{O}_{-\lambda}$ on $G/B$. It has been known that, for a generic $\lambda$, all cohomology groups of $\mathcal{O}_{-\lambda}$ vanish, and that a non-generic equivariant line bundle $\mathcal{O}_{-\lambda}$ has at most one nonzero cohomology group. The new result of this paper is a precise description of when $H^j(G/B,\mathcal{O}_{-\lambda})$ is nonzero and the proof of the fact that, whenever nonzero, $H^j(G/B, \mathcal{O}_{-\lambda})$ is a $G$-module dual to a highest weight module. The main difficulty is in defining an appropriate analog $W_B$ of the Weyl group, so that the action of $W_B$ on weights of $G$ is compatible with the analog of the Demazure ``action" of the Weyl group on the cohomology of line bundles. The highest weight corresponding to $H^j(G/B, \mathcal{O}_{-\lambda})$ is then computed by a procedure similar to that in the classical Bott-Borel-Weil theorem.