Virtual crystals and fermionic formulas of type $D_{n+1}^{(2)}$, $A_{2n}^{(2)}$, and $C_n^{(1)}$

Abstract:

We introduce “virtual” crystals of the affine types $\mathfrak {g}=D_{n+1}^{(2)}$, $A_{2n}^{(2)}$ and $C_n^{(1)}$ by naturally extending embeddings of crystals of types $B_n$ and $C_n$ into crystals of type $A_{2n-1}$. Conjecturally, these virtual crystals are the crystal bases of finite dimensional $U_q’(\mathfrak {g})$-modules associated with multiples of fundamental weights. We provide evidence and in some cases proofs of this conjecture. Recently, fermionic formulas for the one-dimensional configuration sums associated with tensor products of the finite dimensional $U_q’(\mathfrak {g})$-modules were conjectured by Hatayama et al. We provide proofs of these conjectures in specific cases by exploiting duality properties of crystals and rigged configuration techniques. For type $A_{2n}^{(2)}$ we also conjecture a new fermionic formula coming from a different labeling of the Dynkin diagram.