This paper records some apparently new results for the partition of integer intervals [1, n] into weakly sum-free subsets. These were produced using a method closely related to that used by Schur in 1917. New lower bounds can be produced in this way for partitions of unlimited size. The asymptotic growth rate of the lower bounds, as the number of subsets increases, cannot be less than the same growth rate for strongly sum-free partitions, and therefore exceeds 3.27. Specific results for partitions into a 'small' number of subsets include $WS(6) \ge 642$, $WS(7) \ge 2146$, $WS(8) \ge 6976$, $WS(9) \ge 21848$, and $WS(10) \ge 70778$.
We construct an evidently positive multiple series as a generating function for partitions satisfying the multiplicity condition in Schur's partition theorem. Refinements of the series when parts in the said partitions are classified according to their parities or values mod 3 are also considered. Direct combinatorial interpretations of the series are provided.
Elementary proofs are given for sums of Schur functions over partitions into at most n parts each less than or equal to m for which i) all parts are even, ii) all parts of the conjugate partition are even. Also, an elementary proof of a recent result of Ishikawa and Wakayama is given.
The Alladi-Gordon identity plays an important role for the Alladi-Gordon generalization of Schur's partition theorem. By using Joichi-Stanton's insertion algorithm, we present an overpartition interpretation for the Alladi-Gordon key identity. Based on this interpretation, we further obtain a combinatorial proof of the Alladi-Gordon key identity by establishing an involution on the underlying set of overpartitions.
We give another proof for the (-1)-enumeration of self-complementary plane partitions with at least one odd side-length by specializing a certain Schur function identity. The proof is analogous to Stanley's proof for the ordinary enumeration. In addition, we obtain enumerations of 180-degree symmetric rhombus tilings of hexagons with a barrier of arbitrary length along the central line.
Our results revolve around a new operation on partitions, which we call overlap. We prove two overlap identities for so-called Littlewood-Schur functions. Littlewood-Schur functions are a generalization of Schur functions, whose study was introduced by Littlewood. More concretely, the Littlewood-Schur function $LS_λ(X; Y)$ indexed by the partition $λ$ is a polynomial in the variables $X \cup Y$ that is symmetric in both $X$ and $Y$ separately. The first overlap identity represents $LS _λ(X; Y)$ as a sum over subsets of $X$, while the second overlap identity essentially represents $LS_λ(X; Y)$ …
Determining if a symmetric function is Schur-positive is a prevalent and, in general, a notoriously difficult problem. In this paper we study the Schur-positivity of a family of symmetric functions. Given a partition λ, we denote by λ^c its complement in a square partition (m^m). We conjecture a Schur-positivity criterion for symmetric functions of the form s_{μ'}s_{μ^c}-s_{λ'}s_{λ^c}, where λis a partition of weight |μ|-1 contained in μand the complement of μis taken in the same square partition as the complement of λ. We prove the conjecture in many cases.
In 1952, J.H.Braun claimed to have established a formula giving a lower bound for certain partitions of sets of integers into weakly sum-free classes. However, no proof or supporting construction was published at that time. In today's terminology, that claim was equivalent to giving a formulaic lower bound for the weak Schur number $WS(s)$. $WS(s)$ is the maximum number such that there exists a weak Schur partition of the integers from 1 to $WS(s)$, into $s$ subsets. In a weak Schur partition of a set of integers, there can be no three distinct members $a$, $b$ and $c$ in any subset, such that…
We propose and prove a new polynomial identity that implies Schur's partition theorem. We give combinatorial interpretations of some of our expressions in the spirit of Kurşungöz. We also present some related polynomial and $q$-series identities.
We give some new formulas about factorizations of $K$-$k$-Schur functions $g^{(k)}_λ$, analogous to the $k$-rectangle factorization formula $s^{(k)}_{R_t\cupλ}=s^{(k)}_{R_t}s^{(k)}_λ$ of $k$-Schur functions, where $λ$ is any $k$-bounded partition and $R_t$ denotes the partition $(t^{k+1-t})$ called \textit{$k$-rectangle}. Although a formula of the same form does not hold for $K$-$k$-Schur functions, we can prove that $g^{(k)}_{R_t}$ divides $g^{(k)}_{R_t\cupλ}$, and in fact more generally that $g^{(k)}_{P}$ divides $g^{(k)}_{P\cupλ}$ for any multiple $k$-rectangles $P=R_{t_1}^{a_1}\cup\dots\cu…
A remarkable result of Stanley shows that the set of maximal chains in the non-crossing partition lattice of type $A$ is Schur-positive, where descents are defined by a distinguished edge labeling. A bijection between these chains and labeled trees was presented by Goulden and Yong. Using Adin-Roichman's variant of Björner's $EL$-labeling, we show that the subset of maximal chains in the non-crossing partition lattice of type $A$, whose underlying tree is a convex caterpillar, is Schur-positive.
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 show that the shifted rank, or srank, of any partition $λ$ with distinct parts equals the lowest degree of the terms appearing in the expansion of Schur's $Q_λ$ function in terms of power sum symmetric functions. This gives an affirmative answer to a conjecture of Clifford. As pointed out by Clifford, the notion of the srank can be naturally extended to a skew partition $λ/μ$ as the minimum number of bars among the corresponding skew bar tableaux. While the srank conjecture is not valid for skew partitions, we give an algorithm to compute the srank.
Let $\mathscr{S}$ denote the set of integer partitions into parts that differ by at least $3$, with the added constraint that no two consecutive multiples of $3$ occur as parts. We derive trivariate generating functions of Andrews--Gordon type for partitions in $\mathscr{S}$ with both the number of parts and the number of even parts counted. In particular, we provide an analytic counterpart of Andrews' recent refinement of the Alladi--Schur theorem.
Periodic Schur process is a generalization of the Schur process introduced in math.CO/0107056. We compute its correlation functions and their bulk scaling limits, and discuss several applications including asymptotic analysis of uniform measures on cylindric partitions, time-dependent extensions of the discrete sine kernel, and bulk limit behavior of certain measures on partitions introduced in hep-th/0306238 in connection with supersymmetric gauge theories.
In this paper we define the shifted Schur process as a measure on sequences of strict partitions. This process is a generalization of the shifted Schur measure introduced in [TW] and [Mat] and is a shifted version of the Schur process introduced in [OR]. We prove that the shifted Schur process defines a Pfaffian point process. We further apply this fact to compute the bulk scaling limit of the correlation functions for a measure on strict plane partitions which is an analog of the uniform measure on ordinary plane partitions. As a byproduct, we obtain a shifted analog of the famous MacMahon's …
Recently, residue and quotient tables were defined by Fishel and the author, and were used to describe strong covers in the lattice of $k$-bounded partitions. In this paper, we show or conjecture that residue and quotient tables can be used to describe many other results in the theory of $k$-bounded partitions and $k$-Schur functions, including $k$-conjugates, weak horizontal and vertical strips, and the Murnaghan-Nakayama rule. Evidence is presented for the claim that one of the most important open questions in the theory of $k$-Schur functions, a general rule that would describe their produc…
This article provides new lower bounds for both Schur and weak Schur numbers by exploiting a "template"-based approach. The concept of "template" is also generalized to weak Schur numbers. Finding new templates leads to explicit partitions improving lower bounds as well as the growth rate for Schur numbers, weak Schur numbers, and multicolor Ramsey numbers $R_n(3)$. The new lower bounds include $S(9) \geq 17\,803$, $S(10) \geq 60\,948$, $\mathit{WS}(6) \geq 646$, $\mathit{WS}(9) \geq 22\,536$ and $\mathit{WS}(10) \geq 71\,256$.
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.
Plane partitions have been widely studied in Mathematics since MacMahon. See, for example, the works by Andrews, Macdonald, Stanley, Sagan and Krattenthaler. The Schur process approach, introduced by Okounkov and Reshetikhin, and further developed by Borodin, Corwin, Corteel, Savelief and Vuletić, has been proved to be a powerful tool in the study of various kinds of plane partitions. The exact enumerations of ordinary plane partitions, shifted plane partitions and cylindric partitions could be derived from two summation formulas for Schur processes, namely, the open summation formula and the …
We use k-Schur functions to get the minimal boundary of the k-bounded partition poset. This permits to describe the central random walks on affine Grassmannian elements of type A and yields a polynomial expression for their drift. We also recover Rietsch's parametriza-tion of totally nonnegative unitriangular Toeplitz matrices without using quantum cohomology of flag varieties. All the homeomorphisms we define can moreover be made explicit by using the combinatorics of k-Schur functions and elementary computations based on Perron-Frobenius theorem.
We consider ribbon shapes, not necessarily connected, whose rows, with at least two boxes in each, are in monotone length order. These ribbons are uniquely defined by a pair of partitions: the row partition consisting of the row lengths in decreasing order, and the overlapping partition whose entries count the total number of columns with two boxes in the successive ribbon shapes obtained by sequentially subtracting the longest row. The support of such ribbon Schur functions, considered as a subposet of the dominance order lattice on partitions, has the row partition as bottom element, and, as…
This paper proves a combinatorial rule giving all maximal and minimal partitions $λ$ such that the Schur function $s_λ$ appears in a plethysm of two arbitrary Schur functions. Determining the decomposition of these plethysms has been identified by Stanley as a key open problem in algebraic combinatorics. As corollaries we prove three conjectures of Agaoka on the partitions labelling the lexicographically greatest and least Schur functions appearing in an arbitrary plethysm. We also show that the multiplicity of the Schur function labelled by the lexicographically least constituent may be arbit…
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.
Schur's partition theorem states that the number of partitions of n into distinct parts congruent 1, 2 (mod 3) equals the number of partitions of n into parts which differ by >= 3, where the inequality is strict if a part is a multiple of 3. We establish a double bounded refined version of this theorem by imposing one bound on the parts congruent 0,1 (mod 3) and another on the parts congruent 2 (mod 3), and by keeping track of the number of parts in each of the residue classes (mod 3). Despite the long history of Schur's theorem, our result is new, and extends earlier work of Andrews, Alladi-G…
We construct discrete time Markov chains that preserve the class of Schur processes on partitions and signatures. One application is a simple exact sampling algorithm for q^{volume}-distributed skew plane partitions with an arbitrary back wall. Another application is a construction of Markov chains on infinite Gelfand-Tsetlin schemes that represent deterministic flows on the space of extreme characters of the infinite-dimensional unitary group.
We study families of partitions with gap conditions that were introduced by Schur and Andrews, and describe their fundamental connections to combinatorial q-series and automorphic forms. In particular, we show that the generating functions for these families naturally lead to deep identities for theta functions and Hickerson's universal mock theta function, which provides a very general answer to Andrews' Conjecture on the modularity of the Schur-type generating function. Furthermore, we also complete the second part of Andrews' speculation by determining the asymptotic behavior of these funct…
We review and present new studies on the relation between the partition functions of integrable lattice models and symmetric polynomials, and its combinatorial representation theory based on the correspondence, including our work. In particular, we examine the correspondence between the wavefunctions of the XXZ type, Felderhof type and the boson type integrable models and symmetric polynomials such as the Schur, Grothendieck and symplectic Schur functions. We also give a brief report of our work on generalizing the correspondence between the Felderhof models and factorial Schur and symplectic …
We use recent work of Jonah Blasiak (2012) to prove a stability result for the coefficients in the Kronecker product of two Schur functions: one indexed by a hook partition and one indexed by a rectangle partition. We also give bounds for the size of the partition starting with which the Kronecker coefficients are stable. Moreover, we show that once the bound is reached, no new Schur functions appear in the decomposition of Kronecker product, thus allowing one to recover the decomposition from the smallest case in which the stability holds.
We give a Pieri-type formula for the sum of $K$-$k$-Schur functions $\sum_{μ\leλ} g^{(k)}_μ$ over a principal order ideal of the poset of $k$-bounded partitions under the strong Bruhat order, which sum we denote by $\widetilde{g}^{(k)}_λ$. As an application of this, we also give a $k$-rectangle factorization formula $\widetilde{g}^{(k)}_{R_t\cupλ}=\widetilde{g}^{(k)}_{R_t} \widetilde{g}^{(k)}_λ$ where $R_t=(t^{k+1-t})$, analogous to that of $k$-Schur functions $s^{(k)}_{R_t\cupλ}=s^{(k)}_{R_t}s^{(k)}_λ$.
We define a fat staircase to be a Ferrers diagram corresponding to a partition of the form $(n^{α_n}, {n-1}^{α_{n-1}},..., 1^{α_1})$, where $α= (α_1,...,α_n)$ is a composition, or the $180^\circ$ rotation of such a diagram. If a diagram's skew Schur function is a linear combination of Schur functions of fat staircases, we call the diagram a sum of fat staircases. We prove a Schur-positivity result that is obtained each time we augment a sum of fat staircases with a skew diagram. We also determine conditions on which diagrams can be sums of fat staircases, including necessary and sufficient con…
In this simple paper, we exhibit a Schur partition giving rise to a triangle-free linear colouring of $K_{1697}$ in 7 colours. Thus we show that the Schur number $S(7) \ge 1696$ and the multicolour Ramsey number $R_{7}(3) \ge 1698$. We also demonstrate a specific partition of the closed integer interval $[1, 376]$ which, through repeated use of a specific construction, allows us to conclude that $S(k+5) \ge 376.S(k)+160$ for any positive integer $k$. The existence of this partition, with its specific properties, implies that $\lim_{\substack{r \rightarrow \infty}} R{_r}(3)^{1/r} > 3.273$.
We conjecture an evaluation of three-partition cyclic Hodge integrals in terms of loop Schur functions. Our formula implies the orbifold Gromov-Witten/Donaldson-Thomas correspondence for toric Calabi-Yau threefolds with transverse type A singularities. We prove the formula in the case where one of the partitions is empty, and thus establish the orbifold Gromov- Witten/Donaldson-Thomas correspondence for local toric surfaces with transverse type A singularities.
The shifted Schur measure introduced by Tracy and Widom is a measure on the set of all strict partitions, which is defined by Schur $Q$-functions. The main aim of this paper is to calculate the correlation function of this measure, which is given by a pfaffian. As an application, we prove that a limit distribution of $λ_j$'s with respect to a shifted version of the Plancherel measure for symmetric groups is identical with the corresponding distribution of the original Plancherel measure. Further we give expressions of the mean value and the variance of the size of a partition with respect to t…
In a recent paper, Carrell and Goulden found a combinatorial identity of the Bernstein operators that they then used to prove Bernstein's Theorem. We show that this identity is a straightforward consequence of the classical result. We also show how a similar approach using the codes of partitions can be generalized from Schur functions to also include Schur $Q$-functions and derive the combinatorial formulation for both cases. We then apply them by examining the Littlewood-Richardson and Pieri Rules.
An expression is given for the plethysm $p_{2}\circ S_{\square}$, where $p_{2}$ is the power sum of degree two and $S_{\square}$ is the Schur function indexed by a rectangular partition. The formula can be well understood from the viewpoint of the basic representation of the affine Lie algebra of type $A_{2}^{(2)}$.
We consider an operator of Bernstein for symmetric functions, and give an explicit formula for its action on an arbitrary Schur function. This formula is given in a remarkably simple form when written in terms of some notation based on the code of a partition. As an application, we give a new and very simple proof of a classical result for the KP hierarchy, which involves the Plucker relations for Schur function coefficients in a tau function for the hierarchy. This proof is especially compact because of a restatement that we give for the Plucker relations that is symmetrical in terms of parti…
In 1968 and 1969, Andrews proved two partition theorems of the Rogers-Ramanujan type which generalise Schur's celebrated partition identity (1926). Andrews' two generalisations of Schur's theorem went on to become two of the most influential results in the theory of partitions, finding applications in combinatorics, representation theory and quantum algebra. In a recent paper, the author generalised the first of these theorems to overpartitions, using a new technique which consists in going back and forth between $q$-difference equations on generating functions and recurrence equations on thei…
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 investigate the free boundary Schur process, a variant of the Schur process introduced by Okounkov and Reshetikhin, where we allow the first and the last partitions to be arbitrary (instead of empty in the original setting). The pfaffian Schur process, previously studied by several authors, is recovered when just one of the boundary partitions is left free. We compute the correlation functions of the process in all generality via the free fermion formalism, which we extend with the thorough treatment of "free boundary states". For the case of one free boundary, our approach yields a new pro…
We show that, for a certain class of partitions and an even number of variables of which half are reciprocals of the other half, Schur polynomials can be factorized into products of odd and even orthogonal characters. We also obtain related factorizations involving sums of two Schur polynomials, and certain odd-sized sets of variables. Our results generalize the factorization identities proved by Ciucu and Krattenthaler (Advances in combinatorial mathematics, 39-59, 2009) for partitions of rectangular shape. We observe that if, in some of the results, the partitions are taken to have rectangul…
We describe random generation algorithms for a large class of random combinatorial objects called Schur processes, which are sequences of random (integer) partitions subject to certain interlacing conditions. This class contains several fundamental combinatorial objects as special cases, such as plane partitions, tilings of Aztec diamonds, pyramid partitions and more generally steep domino tilings of the plane. Our algorithm, which is of polynomial complexity, is both exact (i.e. the output follows exactly the target probability law, which is either Boltzmann or uniform in our case), and entro…
Schur-Weyl duality is a fundamental framework in combinatorial representation theory. It intimately relates the irreducible representations of a group to the irreducible representations of its centralizer algebra. We investigate the analog of Schur-Weyl duality for the group of unipotent upper triangular matrices over a finite field. In this case, the character theory of these upper triangular matrices is "wild" or unattainable. Thus we employ a generalization, known as supercharacter theory, that creates a striking variation on the character theory of the symmetric group with combinatorics bu…
