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 Euler characteristics of certain vector bundles on Schubert varieties by matching them to characters of generalized Demazure crystals.
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.
The Pieri rule is a nonnegative, multiplicity-free formula for the Schur function expansion of the product of an arbitrary Schur function with a single row Schur function. Key polynomials are characters of Demazure modules for the general linear group that generalize the Schur function basis of symmetric functions to a basis of the full polynomial ring. We prove a nonsymmetric generalization of the Pieri rule by giving a cancellation-free, multiplicity-free formula for the key polynomial expansion of the product of an arbitrary key polynomial with a single part key polynomial. Our proof is com…
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 coh…
We establish a poset structure on combinatorial bases of multivariate polynomials defined by positive expansions, and study properties common to bases in this poset. Included are the well-studied bases of Schubert polynomials, Demazure characters and Demazure atoms; the quasi-key, fundamental and monomial slide bases introduced in 2017 by Assaf and the author; and a new basis we introduce completing this poset structure. We show the product of a Schur polynomial and an element of a basis in this poset expands positively in that basis; in particular, we give the first Littlewood-Richardson rule…
Flagged Schur modules generalize the irreducible representations of the general linear group under the action of the Borel subalgebra. Their characters include many important generalizations of Schur polynomials, such as Demazure characters, flagged skew Schur polynomials, and Schubert polynomials. In this paper, we prove the characters of flagged Schur modules can be computed using a simple combinatorial algorithm due to Kohnert if and only if the indexing diagram is northwest. This gives a new proof that characters of flagged Schur modules are nonnegative sums of Demazure characters and give…
Type A Demazure atoms are pieces of Schur functions, or sets of tableaux whose weights sum to such functions. Inspired by colored vertex models of Borodin and Wheeler, we will construct solvable lattice models whose partition functions are Demazure atoms; the proof of this makes use of a Yang-Baxter equation for a colored five-vertex model. As a biproduct, we construct Demazure atoms on Kashiwara's $\mathcal{B}_\infty$ crystal and give new algorithms for computing Lascoux-Schützenberger keys.
We give an explicit, nonnegative formula for the expansion of nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials specialized at $t=0$ in terms of Demazure characters. Our formula results from constructing Demazure crystals whose characters are the nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials, which also gives a new proof that these specialized nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials are positive graded sums of Demazure characters. Demazure crystals are certain truncations of classical crystals that give a combinatorial skeleton for Demazure modules. To prove our construction, we develop further properties of Demazure crysta…
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 …
The product monomial crystal was defined by Kamnitzer, Tingley, Webster, Weekes, and Yacobi for any semisimple simply-laced Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$, and depends on a collection of parameters $\mathbf{R}$. We show that a family of truncations of this crystal are Demazure crystals, and give a Demazure-type formula for the character of each truncation, and the crystal itself. This character formula shows that the product monomial crystal is the crystal of a generalised Demazure module, as defined by Lakshmibai, Littelmann and Magyar. In type $A$, we show the product monomial crystal is the cry…
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…
Edelman and Greene generalized the Robinson--Schensted--Knuth correspondence to reduced words in order to give a bijective proof of the Schur positivity of Stanley symmetric functions. Stanley symmetric functions may be regarded as the stable limits of Schubert polynomials, and similarly Schur functions may be regarded as the stable limits of Demazure characters for the general linear group. We modify the Edelman--Greene correspondence to give an analogous, explicit formula for the Demazure character expansion of Schubert polynomials. Our techniques utilize dual equivalence and its polynomial …
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…
