We make a broad conjecture about the $k$-Schur positivity of Catalan functions, symmetric functions which generalize the (parabolic) Hall-Littlewood polynomials. We resolve the conjecture with positive combinatorial formulas in cases which address the $k$-Schur expansion of (1) Hall-Littlewood polynomials, proving the $q=0$ case of the strengthened Macdonald positivity conjecture of Lapointe, Lascoux, and Morse; (2) the product of a Schur function and a $k$-Schur function when the indexing partitions concatenate to a partition, describing a class of Gromov-Witten invariants for the quantum cohomology of complete flag varieties; (3) $k$-split polynomials, proving a substantial case of a problem of Broer and Shimozono-Weyman on parabolic Hall-Littlewood polynomials. In addition, we prove the conjecture that $k$-Schur functions defined in terms of $k$-split polynomials agree with strong tableau $k$-Schur functions.
We prove that graded $k$-Schur functions are $G$-equivariant Euler characteristics of vector bundles on the flag variety, settling a conjecture of Chen-Haiman. We expose a new miraculous shift invariance property of the graded $k$-Schur functions and resolve the Schur positivity and $k$-branching conjectures in the strongest possible terms by providing direct combinatorial formulas using strong marked tableaux.
Catalan functions, the graded Euler characteristics of certain vector bundles on the flag variety, are a rich class of symmetric functions which include $k$-Schur functions and parabolic Hall-Littlewood polynomials. We prove that Catalan functions indexed by partition weight are the characters of $U_q(\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}}_\ell)$-generalized Demazure crystals as studied by Lakshmibai-Littelmann-Magyar and Naoi. We obtain Schur positive formulas for these functions, settling conjectures of Chen-Haiman and Shimozono-Weyman. Our approach more generally gives key positive formulas for graded Eul…
We prove that the $K$-$k$-Schur functions are part of a family of inhomogenous symmetric functions whose top homogeneous components are Catalan functions, the Euler characteristics of certain vector bundles on the flag variety. Lam-Schilling-Shimozono identified the $K$-$k$-Schur functions as Schubert representatives for $K$-homology of the affine Grassmannian for SL$_{k+1}$. Our perspective reveals that the $K$-$k$-Schur functions satisfy a shift invariance property, and we deduce positivity of their branching coefficients from a positivity result of Baldwin and Kumar. We further show that a …
We formulate many open questions regarding the Schur positivity of the effect of interesting operators on symmetric functions, and give supporting evidence for why one should expect such behavior.
In 1995, the first author introduced a multivariate generating function {$G$} that tracks the distribution of ascents and descents in labeled binary trees. In addition to proving that $G$ is symmetric, he conjectured that $G$ is Schur positive. We prove this conjecture by expanding $G$ positively in terms of ribbon Schur functions. We obtain this expansion using a weight-preserving bijection whose inverse is inspired by the Push-Glide algorithm of Préville-Ratelle and Viennot. In fact, this weight-preserving bijection allows us to establish a stronger version of the first author's conjecture s…
Shuffles are n-multipermutations with suit multiplicities given by a subset R of {1,..,n-1}. Their inverses are ordered partitions of {1,..,n} whose block sizes derive from R. These "R-permutations" depict the min length coset reps for the quotient of S_n by the parabolic subgroup W_J, with J the complement of R. We refer to those that blockwise avoid the pattern 312 as "312-avoiding R-permutations" and define the "parabolic R-Catalan number" to be the number of them. Let lambda be a partition of N with at most n parts whose set of shape column lengths less than n is R. We show that the number…
In a companion paper, we introduced raising operator series called Catalanimals. Among them are Schur Catalanimals, which represent Schur functions inside copies $Λ(X^{m,n})\subset \mathcal{E} $ of the algebra of symmetric functions embedded in the elliptic Hall algebra $\mathcal{E} $ of Burban and Schiffmann. Here we obtain a combinatorial formula for symmetric functions given by a class of Catalanimals that includes the Schur Catalanimals. Our formula is expressed as a weighted sum of LLT polynomials, with terms indexed by configurations of nested lattice paths called nests, having endpoints…
We define new generalizations of (q,t)-Catalan numbers applying nabla operator on k-Schur functions indexed by column partitions. In some special cases, we give a combinatorial interpretation of these numbers using configurations of Dyck paths. In some other special cases, we also interpret these new polynomial as Hilbert series of explicit sub-modules of the alternating diagonal harmonics built using differential operators.
In the study of Zeilberger's conjecture on an integer sequence related to the Catalan numbers, Lassalle proposed the following conjecture. Let $(t)_n$ denote the rising factorial, and let $Λ_{\mathbb{R}}$ denote the algebra of symmetric functions with real coefficients. If $φ$ is the homomorphism from $Λ_{\mathbb{R}}$ to $\mathbb{R}$ defined by $φ(h_n)={1}/{((t)_nn!)}$ for some $t>0$, then for any Schur function $s_λ$, the value $φ(s_λ)$ is positive. In this paper, we provide an affirmative answer to Lassalle's conjecture by using the Laguerre-Pólya-Schur theory of multiplier sequences.
The aim of this paper is two-fold. We first prove several new interpretations of a kind of $(q,t)$-Catalan numbers along with their corresponding $γ$-expansions using pattern avoiding permutations. Secondly, we give a complete characterization of certain $(-1)$-phenomenon for each subset of permutations avoiding a single pattern of length three, and discuss their $q$-analogues utilizing the newly obtained $q$-$γ$-expansions, as well as the continued fraction of a quint-variate generating function due to Shin and the fourth author. Moreover, we enumerate the alternating permutations avoiding si…
We apply down operators in the affine nilCoxeter algebra to yield explicit combinatorial expansions for certain families of non-commutative k-Schur functions. This yields a combinatorial interpretation for a new family of k-Littlewood-Richardson coefficients.
We present an explicit formula for the transition matrix $\mathcal{C}$ from the type $C_n$ degeneration of the Koornwinder polynomials $P_{(1^r)}(x\,|\,a,-a,c,-c\,|\,q,t)$ with one column diagrams, to the type $C_n$ monomial symmetric polynomials $m_{(1^{r})}(x)$. The entries of the matrix $\mathcal{C}$ enjoy a set of three term recursion relations, which can be regarded as a $(a,c,t)$-deformation of the one for the Catalan triangle or ballot numbers. Some transition matrices are studied associated with the type $(C_n,C_n)$ Macdonald polynomials $P^{(C_n,C_n)}_{(1^r)}(x\,|\,b;q,t)= P_{(1^r)}\b…
Cylindric skew Schur functions, a generalization of skew Schur functions, are closely related to the famous problem finding a combinatorial formula for the 3-point Gromov-Witten invariants of Grassmannian. In this paper, we prove cylindric Schur positivity of the cylindric skew Schur functions, conjectured by McNamara. We also show that all coefficients appearing in the expansion are the same as $3$-point Gromov-Witten invariants. We start discussing properties of affine Stanley symmetric functions for general affine permutations and $321$-avoiding affine permutations, and explain how these fu…
We discuss computations of the Thom polynomials of singularity classes of maps in the basis of Schur functions. We survey the known results about the bound on the length and a rectangle containment for partitions appearing in such Schur function expansions. We describe several recursions for the coefficients. For some singularities, we give old and new computations of their Thom polynomials.
Let $\{P_n\}_{n\geq 0}$ denote the Catalan-Larcombe-French sequence, which naturally came up from the series expansion of the complete elliptic integral of the first kind. In this paper, we prove the strict log-concavity of the sequence $\{\sqrt[n]{P_n}\}_{n\geq 1}$, which was originally conjectured by Sun. We also obtain the strict log-concavity of the sequence $\{\sqrt[n]{V_n}\}_{n\geq 1}$, where $\{V_n\}_{n\geq 0}$ is the Fennessey-Larcombe-French sequence arising in the series expansion of the complete elliptic integral of the second kind.
We give a new characterization of Littlewood-Richardson-Stembridge tableaux for Schur $P$-functions by using the theory of $\mf{q}(n)$-crystals. We also give alternate proofs of the Schur $P$-expansion of a skew Schur function due to Ardila and Serrano, and the Schur expansion of a Schur $P$-function due to Stembridge using the associated crystal structures.
Egge, Loehr and Warrington gave in \cite{ELW} a combinatorial formula that permits to convert the expansion of a symmetric function, homogeneous of degree $n$, in terms of Gessel's fundamental quasisymmetric functions into an expansion in terms of Schur functions. Surprisingly the Egge, Loehr and Warrington result may be shown to be simply equivalent to replacing the Gessel fundamental by a Schur function indexed by the same composition. In this paper we give a direct proof of the validity of this replacement. This interpretation of the result in \cite{ELW} has already been successfully applie…
We summarize some combinatoric problems solved by the higher Catalan numbers. These problems are generalizations of the combinatoric problems solved by the Catalan numbers. The generating function of the higher Catalan numbers appeared recently as an auxiliary function in enumerating maps and explicit computations of the asymptotic expansion of the partition function of random matrices in the unitary ensemble case. We give combinatoric proofs of the formulas for the number of genus 0 and genus 1 maps.
We give a type free formula for the expansion of k-Schur functions indexed by fundamental coweights within the affine nilCoxeter algebra. Explicit combinatorics are developed in affine type C.
After deriving inequalities on coefficients arising in the expansion of a Schur $P$-function in terms of Schur functions we give criteria for when such expansions are multiplicity free. From here we study the multiplicity of an irreducible spin character of the twisted symmetric group in the product of a basic spin character with an irreducible character of the symmetric group, and determine when it is multiplicity free.
We compute the expansion of the Catalan family of Lie idempotents introduced in [Menous et al., Adv. Applied Math. 51 (2013), 177-22] on the PBW basis of the Lie module. It is found that the coefficient of a tree depends only on its number of left and right internal edges. In particular, the Catalan idempotents belong to a preLie algebra based on naked binary trees, of which we identify several Lie and preLie subalgebras.
In recent years, Alexandersson and others proved combinatorial formulas for the Schur function expansion of the horizontal-strip LLT polynomial $G_λ(x;q)$ in some special cases. We associate a weighted graph $Π$ to $λ$ and we use it to express a linear relation among LLT polynomials. We apply this relation to prove an explicit combinatorial Schur-positive expansion of $G_λ(x;q)$ whenever $Π$ is triangle-free. We also prove that the largest power of $q$ in the LLT polynomial is the total edge weight of our graph.
This paper uses the theory of dual equivalence graphs to give explicit Schur expansions for several families of symmetric functions. We begin by giving a combinatorial definition of the modified Macdonald polynomials and modified Hall-Littlewood polynomials indexed by any diagram $δ\subset {\mathbb Z} \times {\mathbb Z}$, written as $\widetilde H_δ(X;q,t)$ and $\widetilde H_δ(X;0,t)$, respectively. We then give an explicit Schur expansion of $\widetilde H_δ(X;0,t)$ as a sum over a subset of the Yamanouchi words, as opposed to the expansion using the charge statistic given in 1978 by Lascoux an…
We give an explicit combinatorial formula for the Schur expansion of Macdonald polynomials indexed by partitions with second part at most two. This gives a uniform formula for both hook and two column partitions. The proof comes as a corollary to the result that generalized dual equivalence classes of permutations are unions of standard dual equivalence classes of permutations for certain cases, establishing an earlier conjecture of the author.
We prove that the Lam-Shimozono "down operator" on the affine Weyl group induces a derivation of the affine Fomin-Stanley subalgebra of the affine nilCoxeter algebra. We use this to verify a conjecture of Berg, Bergeron, Pon and Zabrocki describing the expansion of k-Schur functions of "near rectangles" in the affine nilCoxeter algebra. Consequently, we obtain a combinatorial interpretation of the corresponding k-Littlewood--Richardson coefficients.
We present positivity conjectures for the Schur expansion of Jack symmetric functions in two bases given by binomial coefficients. Partial results suggest that there are rich combinatorics to be found in these bases, including Eulerian numbers, Stirling numbers, quasi-Yamanouchi tableaux, and rook boards. These results also lead to further conjectures about the fundamental quasisymmetric expansions of these bases, which we prove for special cases.
Egge, Loehr, and Warrington proved a formula for the Schur function expansion of a symmetric function in terms of its expansion in fundamental quasi-symmetric functions. Their formula involves the coefficients of a modified inverse Kostka matrix. Recently Garsia and Remmel gave a simpler reformulation of Egge, Loehr, and Warrington's result, with a new proof. We give here a simple proof of Garsia and Remmel's version, using a sign-reversing involution.
We give several explicit combinatorial formulas for the expansion of k-Schur functions indexed by maximal rectangles in terms of the standard basis of the affine nilCoxeter algebra. Using our result, we also show a commutation relation of k-Schur functions corresponding to rectangles with the generators of the affine nilCoxeter algebra.
The $k$-Young lattice $Y^k$ is a partial order on partitions with no part larger than $k$. This weak subposet of the Young lattice originated from the study of the $k$-Schur functions(atoms) $s_λ^{(k)}$, symmetric functions that form a natural basis of the space spanned by homogeneous functions indexed by $k$-bounded partitions. The chains in the $k$-Young lattice are induced by a Pieri-type rule experimentally satisfied by the $k$-Schur functions. Here, using a natural bijection between $k$-bounded partitions and $k+1$-cores, we establish an algorithm for identifying chains in the $k$-Young l…
We will look at the Catalan numbers from the {\it Rigged Configurations} point of view originated \cite{Kir} from an combinatorial analysis of the Bethe Ansatz Equations associated with the higher spin anisotropic Heisenberg models . Our strategy is to take a combinatorial interpretation of Catalan numbers $C_n$ as the number of standard Young tableaux of rectangular shape $(n^2)$, or equivalently, as the Kostka number $K_{(n^2),1^{2n}}$, as the starting point of research. We observe that the rectangular (or multidimensional) Catalan numbers $ C(m,n)$ introduced and studied by P. MacMahon \cit…
We prove exact asymptotic expansions for the partial sums of the sequences of central binomial coefficients and Catalan numbers, $\sum_{k=0}^n \binom{2k}{k}$ and $\sum_{k=0}^n C_n$. We also obtain closed forms for the polynomials $\sum_{k=0}^{q-1}\binom{2k}{k}x^k$ and $\sum_{k=0}^{q-1}C_kx^k$ over the field of $p$ elements, where $q$ is a power of the prime $p$.
Formulas are obtained that express the Schur S-functions indexed by Young diagrams of rectangular shape as linear combinations of "mixed" products of Schur's S- and Q-functions. The proof is achieved by using representations of the affine Lie algebra of type A_1^{(1)}. A realization of the basic representation that is of ``D_2^{(2)}''-type plays the central role.
Gorsky and Negut introduced operators $Q_{m,n}$ on symmetric functions and conjectured that, in the case where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime, the expression ${Q}_{m,n}(1)$ is given by the Hikita polynomial ${H}_{m,n}[X;q,t]$. Later, Bergeron-Garsia-Leven-Xin extended and refined the conjectures of ${Q}_{m,n}(1)$ for arbitrary $m$ and $n$ which we call the Extended Rational Shuffle Conjecture. In the special case ${Q}_{n+1,n}(1)$, the Rational Shuffle Conjecture becomes the Shuffle Conjecture of Haglund-Haiman-Loehr-Remmel-Ulyanov, which was proved in 2015 by Carlsson and Mellit as the Shuff…
We give a combinatorial expansion of a Schubert homology class in the affine Grassmannian Gr_{SL_k} into Schubert homology classes in Gr_{SL_{k+1}}. This is achieved by studying the combinatorics of a new class of partitions called k-shapes, which interpolates between k-cores and k+1-cores. We define a symmetric function for each k-shape, and show that they expand positively in terms of dual k-Schur functions. We obtain an explicit combinatorial description of the expansion of an ungraded k-Schur function into k+1-Schur functions. As a corollary, we give a formula for the Schur expansion of an…
An identity is derived expressing Schur functions as sums over products of pairs of Schur $Q$-functions, generalizing previously known special cases. This is shown to follow from their representations as vacuum expectation values (VEV's) of products of either charged or neutral fermionic creation and annihilation operators, Wick's theorem and a factorization identity for VEV's of products of two mutually anticommuting sets of neutral fermionic operators.
In 2007 Sami Assaf introduced dual equivalence graphs as a method for demonstrating that a quasisymmetric function is Schur positive. The method involves the creation of a graph whose vertices are weighted by Ira Gessel's fundamental quasisymmetric functions so that the sum of the weights of a connected component is a single Schur function. In this paper, we improve on Assaf's axiomatization of such graphs, giving locally testable criteria that are more easily verified by computers. We further advance the theory of dual equivalence graphs by describing a broader class of graphs that correspond…
We construct a lift of Schur's Q-functions to the peak algebra of the symmetric group, called the noncommutative Schur Q-functions, and extract from them a new natural basis with several nice properties such as the positive right-Pieri rule, combinatorial expansion, etc. Dually, we get a basis of the Stembridge algebra of peak functions refining Schur's P-functions in a simple way.
We consider families of quasisymmetric functions with the property that if a symmetric function $f$ is a positive sum of functions in one of these families, then f is necessarily a positive sum of Schur functions. Furthermore, in each of the families studied, we give a combinatorial description of the Schur coefficients of $f$. We organize six such families into a poset, where functions in higher families in the poset are always positive integer sums of functions in each of the lower families. This poset includes the Schur functions, the quasisymmetric Schur functions, the fundamental quasisym…
In this work, we generalize and utilize the linear relations of LLT polynomials introduced by Lee \cite{Lee}. By using the fact that the chromatic quasisymmetric functions and the unicellular LLT polynomials are related via plethystic substitution and thus they satisfy the same linear relations, we can apply the linear relations to both sets of functions. As a result, in the chromatic quasisymmetric function side, we find a class of $e$-positive graphs, called \emph{melting lollipop graphs}, and explicitly prove the $e$-unimodality. In the unicellular LLT side, we obtain Schur expansion formul…
We introduce the quasi-key basis of the polynomial ring. We prove this basis contains the quasi-Schur polynomials of of Haglund, Luoto, Mason and van Willigenburg and that stable limits of quasi-key polynomials are quasi-Schur functions, thus giving a lifting of the quasi-Schur basis of quasisymmetric polynomials to the full polynomial ring. We introduce the combinatorial model of Kohnert tableaux, and use this model to prove that key polynomials expand positively in quasi-key polynomials which in turn expand positively in the fundamental slide polynomials introduced earlier by the authors. We…
We give a combinatorial expansion of the stable Grothendieck polynomials of skew Young diagrams in terms of skew Schur functions, using a new row insertion algorithm for set-valued semistandard tableaux of skew shape. This expansion unifies some previous results: it generalizes a combinatorial formula obtained in earlier joint work with López Martín and Teixidor i Bigas concerning Brill-Noether curves, and it generalizes a 2000 formula of Lenart and a recent result of Reiner-Tenner-Yong to skew shapes. We also give an expansion in the other direction: expressing skew Schur functions in terms o…
It is known that the Schur expansion of a skew Schur function runs over the interval of partitions, equipped with dominance order, defined by the least and the most dominant Littlewood-Richardson filling of the skew shape. We characterise skew Schur functions (and therefore the product of two Schur functions) which are multiplicity-free and the resulting Schur expansion runs over the whole interval of partitions, i.e. skew Schur functions having Littlewood-Richardson coefficients always equal to $1$ over the full interval.
For $k\ge 1$, the homogeneous symmetric functions $G(k,m)$ of degree $m$ defined by $\sum_{m\ge 0} G(k,m) z^m=\prod_{i\ge 1} \big(1+x_iz+x^2_iz^2+\cdots+x^{k-1}_iz^{k-1}\big)$ are called \emph{Petrie symmetric functions}. As derived by Grinberg and Fu--Mei independently, the expansion of $G(k,m)$ in the basis of Schur functions $s_λ$ turns out to be signed multiplicity free, i.e., the coefficients are $-1$, $0$ and $1$. In this paper we give a combinatorial interpretation of the coefficient of $s_λ$ in terms of the $k$-core of $λ$ and a sequence of rim hooks of size $k$ removed from $λ$. We fu…
For any Schur function $s_ν$, the associated {\em delta operator} $Δ'_{s_ν}$ is a linear operator on the ring of symmetric functions which has the modified Macdonald polynomials as an eigenbasis. When $ν= (1^{n-1})$ is a column of length $n-1$, the symmetric function $Δ'_{e_{n-1}} e_n$ appears in the Shuffle Theorem of Carlsson-Mellit. More generally, when $ν= (1^{k-1})$ is any column the polynomial $Δ'_{e_{k-1}} e_n$ is the symmetric function side of the Delta Conjecture of Haglund-Remmel-Wilson. We give an expansion of $ωΔ'_{s_ν} e_n$ at $t = 0$ in the dual Hall-Littlewood basis for any part…
The machinery of noncommutative Schur functions provides a general tool for obtaining Schur expansions for combinatorially defined symmetric functions. We extend this approach to a wider class of symmetric functions, explore its strengths and limitations, and obtain new results on Schur positivity. We introduce combinatorial gadgets called switchboards, an adaptation of the D graphs of S. Assaf, and show how symmetric functions associated to them (which include LLT, Macdonald, Stanley, and stable Grothendieck polynomials) fit into the noncommutative Schur functions approach. This extends earli…
The Bernstein operators allow to build recursively the Schur functions. We present a recursion formula for k-Schur functions at t=1 based on combinatorial operators that generalize the Bernstein operators. The recursion leads immediately to a combinatorial interpretation for the expansion coefficients of k-Schur functions at t=1 in terms of homogeneous symmetric functions.
