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 Salaza. 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.