Cyclage, catabolism, and the affine Hecke algebra

We identify a subalgebra \pH_n of the extended affine Hecke algebra \eH_n of type A. The subalgebra \pH_n is a \u-analogue of the monoid algebra of \S_n \ltimes \ZZ_{\geq 0}^n and inherits a canonical basis from that of \eH_n. We show that its left cells are naturally labeled by tableaux filled with positive integer entries having distinct residues mod n, which we term \emph{positive affine tableaux} (PAT). We then exhibit a cellular subquotient \R_{1^n} of \pH_n that is a \u-analogue of the ring of coinvariants \CC[y_1,...,y_n]/(e_1,...,e_n) with left cells labeled by PAT that are essentially standard Young tableaux with cocharge labels. Multiplying canonical basis elements by a certain element \pi \in \pH_n corresponds to rotations of words, and on cells corresponds to cocyclage. We further show that \R_{1^n} has cellular quotients \R_\lambda that are \u-analogues of the Garsia-Procesi modules R_\lambda with left cells labeled by (a PAT version of) the \lambda-catabolizable tableaux. We give a conjectural description of a cellular filtration of \pH_n, the subquotients of which are isomorphic to dual versions of \R_\lambda under the perfect pairing on \R_{1^n}. We conjecture how this filtration relates to the combinatorics of the cells of \eH_n worked out by Shi, Lusztig, and Xi. We also conjecture that the k-atoms of Lascoux, Lapointe, and Morse and the R-catabolizable tableaux of Shimozono and Weyman have cellular counterparts in \pH_n. We extend the idea of atom copies of Lascoux, Lapoint, and Morse to positive affine tableaux and give descriptions, mostly conjectural, of some of these copies in terms of catabolizability.Comment: 58 pages, youngtab.sty included for tableau

A generalization of the Kostka-Foulkes polynomials

Combinatorial objects called rigged configurations give rise to q-analogues of certain Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. The Kostka-Foulkes polynomials and two-column Macdonald-Kostka polynomials occur as special cases. Conjecturally these polynomials coincide with the Poincare polynomials of isotypic components of certain graded GL(n)-modules supported in a nilpotent conjugacy class closure in gl(n).Comment: 37 page