Doppelgängers: Bijections of Plane Partitions

Abstract

We say two posets are "doppelgängers" if they have the same number of $P$-partitions of each height $k$. We give a uniform framework for bijective proofs that posets are doppelgängers by synthesizing $K$-theoretic Schubert calculus techniques of H. Thomas and A. Yong with M. Haiman's rectification bijection and an observation of R. Proctor. Geometrically, these bijections reflect the rational equivalence of certain subvarieties of minuscule flag manifolds. As a special case, we provide the first bijective proof of a 1983 theorem of R. Proctor---that plane partitions of height $k$ in a rectangle are equinumerous with plane partitions of height $k$ in a trapezoid.