Combinatorial mutations of Gelfand–Tsetlin polytopes, Feigin–Fourier–Littelmann–Vinberg polytopes, and block diagonal matching field polytopes

Abstract

The Gelfand-Tsetlin and the Feigin–Fourier–Littelmann–Vinberg polytopes for the Grassmannians are defined, from the perspective of representation theory, to parametrize certain bases for highest weight irreducible modules. These polytopes are Newton-Okounkov bodies for the Grassmannian and, in particular, the GT polytope is an example of a string polytope. The polytopes admit a combinatorial description as the Stanley’s order and chain polytopes of a certain poset, as shown by Ardila, Bliem and Salazar. We prove that these polytopes occur among matching field polytopes. Moreover, we show that they are related by a sequence of combinatorial mutations that passes only through matching field polytopes. As a result, we obtain a family of matching fields that give rise to toric degenerations for the Grassmannians. Moreover, all polytopes in the family are Newton-Okounkov bodies for the Grassmannians.