Schur decompositions and the corresponding Schur forms of a single matrix, a pair of matrices, or a collection of matrices associated with the periodic eigenvalue problem are frequently used and studied. These forms are upper-triangular complex matrices or quasi-upper-triangular real matrices that are equivalent to the original matrices via unitary or, respectively, orthogonal transformations. In general, for theoretical and numerical purposes we often need to reduce, by admissible transformations, a collection of matrices to the Schur form. Unfortunately, such a reduction is not always possible. In this paper we describe all collections of complex (real) matrices that can be reduced to the Schur form by the corresponding unitary (orthogonal) transformations and explain how such a reduction can be done. We prove that this class consists of the collections of matrices associated with pseudoforest graphs. In other words, we describe when the Schur form of a collection of matrices exists and how to find it.
Recently Tewari and van Willigenburg constructed modules of the 0-Hecke algebra that are mapped to the quasisymmetric Schur functions by the quasisymmetric characteristic and decomposed them into a direct sum of certain submodules. We show that these submodules are indecomposable by determining their endomorphism rings.
We study the unique maximal decomposition of an arbitrary affine permutation into a product of cyclically decreasing elements, providing a new perspective on work of Thomas Lam. This decomposition is closely related to the affine code, which generalizes the $k$-bounded partition associated to Grassmannian elements. We also show that the affine code readily encodes a number of basic combinatorial properties of an affine permutation. As an application, we prove a new special case of the Littlewood-Richardson Rule for $k$-Schur functions, using the canonical decomposition to control for which per…
We prove that the permutations of $\{1,\dots, n\}$ having an increasing (resp., decreasing) subsequence of length $n-r$ index a subset of the set of all $r$th Kronecker powers of $n \times n$ permutation matrices which is a basis for the linear span of that set. Thanks to a known Schur--Weyl duality, this gives a new basis for the centralizer algebra of the partition algebra acting on the $r$th tensor power of a vector space. We give some related results on the set of doubly stochastic matrices in that algebra.
By using cutting strips and transformations on outside decompositions of a skew diagram, we show that the Giambelli type matrices of a skew Schur function are stably equivalent to each other over symmetric functions. As a consequence, the Jacobi-Trudi matrix and the dual Jacobi-Trudi matrix are stably equivalent over symmetric functions. This gives an affirmative answer to an open problem posed by Kuperberg.
We prove a determinantal identity concerning Schur functions for 2-staircase diagrams lambda=(ln+l',ln,l(n-1)+l',l(n-1),...,l+l',l,l',0). When l=1 and l'=0 these functions are related to the partition function of the 6-vertex model at the combinatorial point and hence to enumerations of Alternating Sign Matrices. A consequence of our result is an identity concerning the doubly-refined enumerations of Alternating Sign Matrices.
We prove that for arbitrary partitions $\mathbfλ \subseteq \mathbfκ,$ and integers $0\leq c<r\leq n,$ the sequence of Schur polynomials $S_{(\mathbfκ + k\cdot \mathbf{1}^c)/(\mathbfλ + k\cdot \mathbf{1}^r)}(x_1,...,x_n)$ for $k$ sufficiently large, satisfy a linear recurrence. The roots of the characteristic equation are given explicitly. These recurrences are also valid for certain sequences of minors of banded Toeplitz matrices. In addition, we show that Widom's determinant formula from 1958 is a special case of a well-known identity for Schur polynomials.
In this paper a variety of issues are discussed, Schur ring, $S$-sets, circulant orbits, decimation operator and Hadamard matrices and their relation between them is shown. Firstly we define the complete $S$-sets. Next, we study the structure of Schur ring with circulant basic sets over $\Z_{2}^{n}$ and we define the free and non-free circulant $S$-sets, the symmetric, non-symmetric and antisymmetric circulant $S$-sets. We prove that all this $S$-sets are invariants under decimation. Finally, we prove that if a Hadamard matrix exist then this is contained in a complete $S$-set. Also, we prove …
We exhibit a weight-preserving bijection between semi-standard Young tableaux and semi-skyline augmented fillings to provide a combinatorial proof that the Schur functions decompose into nonsymmetric functions indexed by compositions. The insertion procedure involved in the proof leads to an analogue of the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth Algorithm for semi-skyline augmented fillings. This procedure commutes with the RSK algorithm, and therefore retains many of its properties.
The Jacobi-Trudi formulas imply that the minors of the banded Toeplitz matrices can be written as certain skew Schur polynomials. In 2012, Alexandersson expressed the corresponding skew partitions in terms of the indices of the struck-out rows and columns. In the present paper, we develop the same idea and obtain some new applications. First, we prove a slight generalization and modification of Alexandersson's formula. Then, we deduce corollaries about the cofactors and eigenvectors of banded Toeplitz matrices, and give new simple proofs to the corresponding formulas published by Trench in 198…
The block number of a permutation is the maximal number of components in its expression as a direct sum. We show that, for $321$-avoiding permutations, the set of left-to-right maxima has the same distribution when the block number is assumed to be $k$ as when the last descent of the inverse is assumed to be at position $n - k$. This result is analogous to the Foata-Schützenberger equi-distribution theorem, and implies that the quasi-symmetric generating function of descent set over $321$-avoiding permutations with a prescribed number of blocks is Schur-positive.
We describe a combinatorial formula for the coefficients when the dual immaculate quasisymmetric functions are decomposed into Young quasisymmetric Schur functions. We prove this using an analogue of Schensted insertion. Using this result, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a dual immaculate quasisymmetric function to be symmetric. Moreover, we show that the product of a Schur function and a dual immaculate quasisymmetric function expands positively in the Young quasisymmetric Schur basis. We also discuss the decomposition of the Young noncommutative Schur functions into the immac…
In this paper we describe the thickened strips and the outside nested decompositions of any skew shape $λ/μ$. For any such decomposition $Φ=(Θ_1,Θ_2,\ldots,Θ_g)$ of the skew shape $λ/μ$ where $Θ_i$ is a thickened strip for every $i$, if $r$ is the number of boxes that are contained in any two distinct thickened strips of $Φ$, we establish a determinantal formula of the function $s_{λ/μ}(X)p_{1^r}(X)$ with the Schur functions of thickened strips as entries, where $s_{λ/μ}(X)$ is the Schur function of the skew shape $λ/μ$ and $p_{1^r}(X)$ is the power sum symmetric function index by the partitio…
In this paper three Schur ring are discussed, namenly: Hamming, circulant orbists and decimated circulant orbits Schur ring. By using autocorrelation function and the run structure of binary sequences we proof the relation between this Schur ring and combinatorial structures such as Hadamard matrices, periodic compatible binary sequences and perfect binary sequences. Cai proved for binary sequences that the autocorrelation function is in fact completely determined by its run structure. Also, he characterised the structure of the circulant Hadamard matrices. We characterise a more general struc…
We introduce a new combinatorial object, semistandard increasing decomposition tableau and study its relation to a semistandard decomposition tableau introduced by Kraśkiewicz and developed by Lam and Serrano. We also introduce generalized Littlewood--Richardson coefficients for products of Schur's symmetric functions and give combinatorial descriptions in terms of tableau words. The insertion algorithms play central roles for proofs. A new description of shifted Littlewood--Richardson coefficients is given in terms of semistandard increasing decomposition tableaux. We show that a "big" Schur …
Since every even power of the Vandermonde determinant is a symmetric polynomial, we want to understand its decomposition in terms of the basis of Schur functions. We investigate several combinatorial properties of the coefficients in the decomposition. In particular, we give recursive formulas for the coefficient of the Schur function $s_{\m}$ in the decomposition of an even power of the Vandermonde determinant in $n + 1$ variables in terms of the coefficient of the Schur function $s_ł$ in the decomposition of the same even power of the Vandermonde determinant in $n$ variables if the Young dia…
We introduce the notion of the cutting strip of an outside decomposition of a skew shape, and show that cutting strips are in one-to-one correspondence with outside decompositions for a given skew shape. Outside decompositions are introduced by Hamel and Goulden and are used to give an identity for the skew Schur function that unifies the determinantal expressions for the skew Schur functions including the Jacobi-Trudi determinant, its dual, the Giambelli determinant and the rim ribbon determinant due to Lascoux and Pragacz. Using cutting strips, one obtains a formula for the number of outside…
We express minors of Toeplitz matrices of finite and large dimension in terms of symmetric functions. Comparing the resulting expressions with the inverses of some Toeplitz matrices, we obtain explicit formulas for a Selberg-Morris integral and for specializations of certain skew Schur polynomials.
The permanent-on-top conjecture states that the largest eigenvalue of the Schur power matrix of a positive semi-definite Hermitian matrix H is per(H). A counterexample has been found with the help of computers, but here, I present another counterexample that can be checked by hand. My method is to use linear representations of groups to connect the spectrum of the Schur power matrix with the spectra of the entrywise(Hadamard) product matrices of permanental compound matrices. By that, we are able to study the properties of the spectrum of the Schur power matrix through the entrywise(Hadamard) …
In [Rank-Width and Well-Quasi-Ordering of Skew-Symmetric or Symmetric Matrices, arXiv:1007.3807v1] Oum proved that, for a fixed finite field $\mathbf{F}$, any infinite sequence $M_1,M_2,...$ of (skew) symmetric matrices over $\mathbf{F}$ of bounded $\mathbf{F}$-rank-width has a pair $i< j$, such that $M_i$ is isomorphic to a principal submatrix of a principal pivot transform of $M_j$. We generalise this result to $σ$-symmetric matrices introduced by Rao and myself in [The Rank-Width of Edge-Coloured Graphs, arXiv:0709.1433v4]. (Skew) symmetric matrices are special cases of $σ$-symmetric matric…
The distribution of Coxeter descents and block number over the set of fully commutative elements in the hyperoctahedral group $B_n$, $\FC(B_n)$, is studied in this paper. We prove that the associated Chow quasi-symmetric generating function is equal to a non-negative sum of products of two Schur functions. The proof involves a decomposition of $\FC(B_n)$ into a disjoint union of two-sided Barbash-Vogan combinatorial cells, a type $B$ extension of Rubey's descent preserving involution on $321$-avoiding permutations and a detailed study of the intersection of $\FC(B_n)$ with $S_n$-cosets which y…
We present several generalizations of Cauchy's determinant and Schur's Pfaffian by considering matrices whose entries involve some generalized Vandermonde determinants. Special cases of our formulae include previuos formulae due to S.Okada and T. Sundquist. As an application, we give a relation for the Littlewood--Richardson coefficients involving a rectangular partition.
Extracting structured subgraphs inside large graphs - often known as the planted subgraph problem - is a fundamental question that arises in a range of application domains. This problem is NP-hard in general, and as a result, significant efforts have been directed towards the development of tractable procedures that succeed on specific families of problem instances. We propose a new computationally efficient convex relaxation for solving the planted subgraph problem; our approach is based on tractable semidefinite descriptions of majorization inequalities on the spectrum of a symmetric matrix.…
A classical result by Schoenberg (1942) identifies all real-valued functions that preserve positive semidefiniteness (psd) when applied entrywise to matrices of arbitrary dimension. Schoenberg's work has continued to attract significant interest, including renewed recent attention due to applications in high-dimensional statistics. However, despite a great deal of effort in the area, an effective characterization of entrywise functions preserving positivity in a fixed dimension remains elusive to date. As a first step, we characterize new classes of polynomials preserving positivity in fixed d…
We give closed-form formulas for the fundamental classes of degeneracy loci associated with vector bundle maps given locally by (not necessary square) matrices which are symmetric (resp. skew-symmetric) w.r.t. the main diagonal. Our description uses essentially Schur Q-polynomials of a bundle, and is based on a certain push-forward formula for these polynomials in a Grassmann bundle.
We discuss several well known results about Schur functions that can be proved using cancellations in alternating summations; notably we shall discuss the Pieri and Murnaghan-Nakayama rules, the Jacobi-Trudi identity and its dual (Von N{ä}gelsbach-Kostka) identity, their proofs using the correspondence with lattice paths of Gessel and Viennot, and finally the Littlewood-Richardson rule. Our our goal is to show that the mentioned statements are closely related, and can be proved using variations of the same basic technique. We also want to emphasise the central part that is played by matrices o…
Given a family of lattice polytopes, two common questions in Ehrhart Theory are determining when a polytope has the integer decomposition property and determining when a polytope is reflexive. While these properties are of independent interest, the confluence of these properties is a source of active investigation due to conjectures regarding the unimodality of the $h^\ast$-polynomial. In this paper, we consider the Newton polytopes arising from two families of polynomials in algebraic combinatorics: Schur polynomials and inflated symmetric Grothendieck polynomials. In both cases, we prove tha…
