For any complex number $α$ and any even-size skew-symmetric matrix $B$, we define a generalization $\pfaα(B)$ of the pfaffian $\pf(B)$ which we call the $α$-pfaffian. The $α$-pfaffian is a pfaffian analogue of the $α$-determinant. It gives the pfaffian at $α=-1$. We give some formulas for $α$-pfaffians and study the positivity. Further we define point processes determined by the $α$-pfaffian. Also we provide a linear algebraic proof of the explicit pfaffian expression for the correlation function of the shifted Schur measure.
We study the correlation functions of the Pfaffian Schur process. Borodin and Rains [J. Stat. Phys. 121 (2005), 291-317] introduced the Pfaffian Schur process and derived its correlation functions using a Pfaffian analogue of the Eynard-Mehta theorem. We present here an alternative derivation of the correlation functions using Macdonald difference operators.
We establish Pfaffian analogues of the Cauchy--Binet formula and the Ishikawa--Wakayama minor-summation formula. Each of these Pfaffian analogues expresses a sum of products of subpfaffians of two skew-symmetric matrices in terms of a single Pfaffian. By using these Pfaffian formulas we give new transparent proofs to several identities for Schur Q23 pa-functions.
We present a Pfaffian identity involving elliptic functions, whose rational limit gives a generalization of Schur's Pfaffian identity for Pf ((x_j - x_i)/(x_j + x_i)). This identity is regarded as a Pfaffian counterpart of Frobenius identity, which is an elliptic generalization of Cauchy's determinant identity for det (1/ (x_i + x_j)).
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.
We give a simple formula for some determinants, and an analogous formula for pfaffians, both of which are polynomial identities. The second involve some expressions that interpolate between determinants and pfaffians. We give several tableau formulas for difference operators in Types A and C, as well as other operators that appear in the "enriched", or "back-stable" Schubert polynomials. There are also tableau formulas for the enriched Schubert polynomials for vexillary and $321$-avoiding permutations.
Recently Okada defined algebraically ninth variation skew Q-functions, in parallel to Macdonald's ninth variation skew Schur functions. Here we introduce a skew shifted tableaux definition of these ninth variation skew Q-functions, and prove by means of a non-intersecting lattice path model a Pfaffian outside decomposition result in the form of a ninth variation version of Hamel's Pfaffian outside decomposition identity. As corollaries to this we derive Pfaffian identities generalizing those of Josefiak-Pragacz, Nimmo, and most recently Okada. As a preamble to this we present a parallel develo…
We study pfaffian analogues of immanants, which we call pfaffinants. Our main object is the TL-pfaffinants which are analogues of Rhoades and Skandera's TL-immanants. We show that TL-pfaffinants are positive when applied to planar networks and explain how to decompose products of complementary pfaffians in terms of TL-pfaffinants. We conjecture in addition that TL-pfaffinants have positivity properties related to Schur Q-functions.
We introduce interpolation analogues of Schur Q-functions - the multiparameter Schur Q-functions. We obtain for them several results: a combinatorial formula, generating functions for one-row and two-rows functions, vanishing and characterization properties, a Pieri-type formula, a Nimmo-type formula (a relation of two Pfaffians), a Giambelli-Schur-type Pfaffian formula, a determinantal formula for the transition coefficients between multiparameter Schur Q-functions with different parameters. We write an explicit Pfaffian expression for the dimension of skew shifted Young diagram. This paper i…
To each partition $λ$ with distinct parts we assign the probability $Q_λ(x) P_λ(y)/Z$ where $Q_λ$ and $P_λ$ are the Schur $Q$-functions and $Z$ is a normalization constant. This measure, which we call the shifted Schur measure, is analogous to the much-studied Schur measure. For the specialization of the first $m$ coordinates of $x$ and the first $n$ coordinates of $y$ equal to $α$ ($0<α<1$) and the rest equal to zero, we derive a limit law for $λ_1$ as $m,n\ra\infty$ with $τ=m/n$ fixed. For the Schur measure the $α$-specialization limit law was derived by Johansson. Our main result implies th…
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…
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…
By considering type B analogs of permutations and tableaux, we extend abstract dual equivalence to type B in two directions. In one direction, we define involutions on signed permutations and shifted tableaux that give a weak dual equivalence, thereby giving another proof of the Schur positivity of Schur Q- and P-functions. In another direction, we define an abstract shifted dual equivalence parallel to dual equivalence and prove that it can be used to establish Schur P-positivity of a function expressed as a sum of shifted fundamental quasisymmetric functions.
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 …
We show that if $N \geq \exp(\exp(\exp (k^{O(1)})))$, then any $k$-colouring of the primes that are less than $N$ contains a monochromatic solution to $p_1 - p_2 = p_3 -1$.
We introduce a shifted analog of the plactic monoid of Lascoux and Schützenberger, the \emph{shifted plactic monoid}. It can be defined in two different ways: via the \emph{shifted Knuth relations}, or using Haiman's mixed insertion. Applications include: a new combinatorial derivation (and a new version of) the shifted Littlewood-Richardson Rule; similar results for the coefficients in the Schur expansion of a Schur $P$-function; a shifted counterpart of the Lascoux-Schützenberger theory of noncommutative Schur functions in plactic variables; a characterization of shifted tableau words; and m…
We define crystal operators on semistandard shifted tableaux, giving a new proof that Schur $P$-functions are Schur positive. We define a queer crystal operator to construct a connected queer crystal on semistandard shifted tableaux of a given shape, providing a new proof that products of Schur $P$-functions are Schur $P$-positive. We also give a rectification map from shifted tableaux to Young tableaux that commutes with the crystal operators and provides a dual algorithm to shifted insertion.
We study Schur Q-polynomials evaluated on a geometric progression, or equivalently q-enumeration of marked shifted tableaux, seeking explicit formulas that remain regular at q=1. We obtain several such expressions as multiple basic hypergeometric series, and as determinants and pfaffians of continuous q-ultraspherical or continuous q-Jacobi polynomials. As special cases, we obtain simple closed formulas for staircase-type partitions.
We give a new proof of Milne's formulas for the number of representations of an integer as a sum of 4m^2 and 4m(m+1) squares. The proof is based on explicit evaluation of pfaffians with elliptic function entries, and relates Milne's formulas to Schur Q-polynomials and to correlation functions for continuous dual Hahn polynomials. We also state a new formula for 2m^2 squares.
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 …
The action of the Bernstein operators on Schur functions was given in terms of codes in [CG] and extended to the analog in Schur Q-functions in [HJS]. We define a new combinatorial model of extended codes and show that both of these results follow from a natural combinatorial relation induced on codes. The new algebraic structure provides a natural setting for Schur functions indexed by compositions.
We give local axioms that uniquely characterize the crystal-like structure on shifted tableaux developed in a previous paper by Gillespie, Levinson, and Purbhoo. These axioms closely resemble those developed by Stembridge for type A tableau crystals. This axiomatic characterization gives rise to a new method for proving and understanding Schur $Q$-positive expansions in symmetric function theory, just as the Stembridge axiomatic structure provides for ordinary Schur positivity.
In this paper are introduced two classes of elements in the enveloping algebra $\mathbf{U}(gl(n))$: the \emph{double Young-Capelli bitableaux} $[\ \fbox{$S \ | \ T$}\ ]$ and the \emph{central} \emph{Schur elements} $\mathbf{S}_λ(n)$, that act in a remarkable way on the highest weight vectors of irreducible Schur modules. Any element $\mathbf{S}_λ(n)$ is the sum of all double Young-Capelli bitableaux $[\ \fbox{$S \ | \ S$}\ ]$, $S$ row (strictly) increasing Young tableaux of shape $\widetildeλ$. The Schur elements $\mathbf{S}_λ(n)$ are proved to be the preimages - with respect to the Harish-Cha…
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 …
Classical Schur P-functions are the particular case of Hall-Littlewood polynomials when the parameter is equal to -1. We introduce factorial (interpolation) analogues of Schur P-functions. A dimension of a skew shifted Young diagram is the number of standard tableaux of the given shape. Also these numbers are equal up to simple factors to the decomposition coefficients of the restriction of an irreducible representation of a spin-symmetric group to a smaller spin-symmetric group. In terms of the factorial Schur P-functions we obtain an explicit formula for the dimension of a skew shifted Young…
We present some corollaries to a symplectic primed shifted tableaux version of Tokuyama's identity expressed in terms of other combinatorial constructs, namely generalised $U$-turn alternating sign matrices and strict symplectic Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns.
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.
The shifted Plancherel measure is a natural probability measure on strict partitions. We prove a polynomiality property for the averages of the shifted Plancherel measure. As an application, we give alternative proofs of some content evaluation formulas, obtained by Han and Xiong very recently. Our main tool is factorial Schur $Q$-functions.
We give a combinatorial proof of a natural generalization of the Murnaghan-Nakayama rule to loop Schur functions. We also define shifted loop Schur functions and prove that they satisfy a similar relation.
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.
We provide two shifted analogues of the tableau switching process due to Benkart, Sottile, and Stroomer, the shifted tableau switching process and the modified shifted tableau switching process. They are performed by applying a sequence of specially contrived elementary transformations called {\em switches} and turn out to have some spectacular properties. For instance, the maps induced from these algorithms are involutive and behave very nicely with respect to shifted Young tableaux whose reading words satisfy the lattice property. As an application, we give combinatorial interpretations of S…
The orbits of the symplectic group acting on the type A flag variety are indexed by the fixed-point-free involutions in a finite symmetric group. The cohomology classes of the closures of these orbits have polynomial representatives $\hat{\mathfrak{S}}^{\tt{FPF}}_z$ akin to Schubert polynomials. We show that the fixed-point-free involution Stanley symmetric functions $\hat{F}^{\tt{FPF}}_z$, which are stable limits of the polynomials $\hat{\mathfrak{S}}^{\tt{FPF}}_z$, are Schur $P$-positive. To do so, we construct an analogue of the Lascoux-Schützenberger tree, an algebraic recurrence that comp…
In this paper, we study shifted Schur functions $S_μ^\star$, as well as a new family of shifted symmetric functions $\mathfrak{K}_μ$ linked to Kostka numbers. We prove that both are polynomials in multi-rectangular coordinates, with nonnegative coefficients when written in terms of falling factorials. We then propose a conjectural generalization to the Jack setting. This conjecture is a lifting of Knop and Sahi's positivity result for usual Jack polynomials and resembles recent conjectures of Lassalle. We prove our conjecture for one-part partitions.
We consider the asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) on the positive integers with an open boundary condition. We show that, when starting devoid of particles and for a certain boundary condition, the height function at the origin fluctuates asymptotically (in large time $τ$) according to the Tracy-Widom GOE distribution on the $τ^{1/3}$ scale. This is the first example of KPZ asymptotics for a half-space system outside the class of free-fermionic/determinantal/Pfaffian models. Our main tool in this analysis is a new class of probability measures on Young diagrams that we call half-space…
It is shown that all $τ$-functions of BKP hierarchy can be written as Pfaffians of skew-symmetric matrices. $τ$-functions of BKP hierarchy are parameterized by points in the universal orthogonal Grassmannian manifold (UOGM). The UOGM is a disjoint union of Schubert cells, we classify and give explicit parameterization for points in each Schubert cell by constructing a frame for UOGM in the sense of Sato. $τ$-functions are then expressed in terms of these frames and Schur-Q functions. For concreteness we give a comprehensive study for the $τ$-functions of $B$-Toda which can be viewed as a finit…
