We present two symmetric function operators $H_3^{qt}$ and $H_4^{qt}$ that have the property $H_{3}^{qt} H_{(2^a1^b)}[X;q,t] = H_{(32^a1^b)}[X;q,t]$ and $H_4^{qt} H_{(2^a1^b)}[X;q,t] = H_{(42^a1^b)}[X;q,t]$. These operators are generalizations of the analogous operator $H_2^{qt}$ and also have expressions in terms of Hall-Littlewood vertex operators. We also discuss statistics, $a_μ(T)$ and $b_μ(T)$, on standard tableaux such that the $q,t$ Kostka polynomials are given by the sum over standard tableaux of shape $\la$, $K_{\laμ}(q,t) = \sum_T t^{a_μ(T)} q^{b_μ(T)}$ for the case when when $μ$ is two columns or of the form $(32^a1^b)$ or $(42^a1^b)$. This provides proof of the positivity of the $(q,t)$-Kostka coefficients in the previously unknown cases of $K_{\la (32^a1^b)}(q,t)$ and $K_{\la (42^a1^b)}(q,t)$. The vertex operator formulas are used to give formulas for generating functions for classes of standard tableaux that generalize the case when $μ$ is two columns.
The generalized Kostka polynomials are the Poincare polynomials of isotypic components of certain graded GL(n)-modules. The former satisfy a monotonicity property arising from natural surjections of the corresponding modules. This monotonicity property is realized combinatorially by a directed system of order- and statistic-preserving embeddings between the sets of Littlewood-Richardson (LR) tableaux that describe the generalized Kostka polynomials. Each set of LR tableaux is embedded into a cocyclage poset of column-strict tableaux of a fixed content, and the image is characterized in terms o…
Young tableaux are ubiquitous in various branches of mathematics. There are two counting formulas for standard Young tableaux. The first involves a determinant and goes back to Frobenius and Young, and the second is the hook formula by Frame, Robinson and Thrall. We present a generalization of the determinant formula for semistandard Young tableaux of given shape and of given content. Our counting formula -- though not a determinant -- is a generalization of the determinant formula by Frobenius and Young.
The Macdonald polynomials expanded in terms of a modified Schur function basis have coefficients called the $q,t$-Kostka polynomials. We define operators to build standard tableaux and show that they are equivalent to creation operators that recursively build the Macdonald polynomials indexed by two part partitions. We uncover a new basis for these particular Macdonald polynomials and in doing so are able to give an explicit description of their associated $q,t$-Kostka coefficients by assigning a statistic in $q$ and $t$ to each standard tableau.
We use Kashiwara-Nakashima's combinatorics of crystal graphs associated to the roots sytems $B_{n}$ and $D_{n}$ to extend the results of \QCITE{cite}{}{lec3} and \QCITE{cite}{}{Mor} by showing that Morris type recurrence formulas also exist for the orthogonal root systems. We derive from these formulas a statistic on Kashiwara-Nakashima's tableaux of types $B_{n},C_{n}$ and $D_{n}$ generalizing Lascoux-Sch\UNICODE{0xfc}tzenberger's charge and from which it is possible to compute the Kostka-Foulkes polynomials $K_{λ,μ}(q)$ with restrictive conditions on $(λ,μ)$ . This statistic is different fro…
We establish a Morris type recurrence formula for the root system $C_{n}$.\ Next we introduce cyclage graphs for the corresponding Kashiwara-Nakashima's tableaux and use them to define a charge statistic. Finally we conjecture that this charge may be used to compute the Kostka-Foulkes polynomials for type $C_{n}.$
We prove a strong factorization property of interpolation Macdonald polynomials when $q$ tends to $1$. As a consequence, we show that Macdonald polynomials have a strong factorization property when $q$ tends to $1$, which was posed as an open question in our previous paper with Féray. Furthermore, we introduce multivariate $q,t$-Kostka numbers and we show that they are polynomials in $q,t$ with integer coefficients by using the strong factorization property of Macdonald polynomials. We conjecture that multivariate $q,t$-Kostka numbers are in fact polynomials in $q,t$ with nonnegative integer c…
Inhomogeneous lattice paths are introduced as ordered sequences of rectangular Young tableaux thereby generalizing recent work on the Kostka polynomials by Nakayashiki and Yamada and by Lascoux, Leclerc and Thibon. Motivated by these works and by Kashiwara's theory of crystal bases we define a statistic on paths yielding two novel classes of polynomials. One of these provides a generalization of the Kostka polynomials while the other, which we name the A$_{n-1}$ supernomial, is a $q$-deformation of the expansion coefficients of products of Schur polynomials. Many well-known results for Kostka …
Egecioglu and Remmel gave an interpretation for the entries of the inverse Kostka matrix K^{-1} in terms of special rim-hook tableaux. They were able to use this interpretation to give a combinatorial proof that KK^{-1}=I but were unable to do the same for the equation K^{-1}K=I. We define a sign-reversing involution on rooted special rim-hook tableaux which can be used to prove that the last column of this second product is correct. In addition, following a suggestion of Chow we combine our involution with a result of Gasharov to give a combinatorial proof of a special case of the (3+1)-free …
Level-restricted paths play an important role in crystal theory. They correspond to certain highest weight vectors of modules of quantum affine algebras. We show that the recently established bijection between Littlewood--Richardson tableaux and rigged configurations is well-behaved with respect to level-restriction and give an explicit characterization of level-restricted rigged configurations. As a consequence a new general fermionic formula for the level-restricted generalized Kostka polynomial is obtained. Some coset branching functions of type $A$ are computed by taking limits of these fe…
We show that the Galois group of any Schubert problem involving lines in projective space contains the alternating group. Using a criterion of Vakil and a special position argument due to Schubert, this follows from a particular inequality among Kostka numbers of two-rowed tableaux. In most cases, an easy combinatorial injection proves the inequality. For the remaining cases, we use that these Kostka numbers appear in tensor product decompositions of sl_2(C)-modules. Interpreting the tensor product as the action of certain commuting Toeplitz matrices and using a spectral analysis and Fourier s…
We report about results revolving around Kostka-Foulkes and parabolic Kostka polynomials and their connections with Representation Theory and Combinatorics. It appears that the set of all parabolic Kostka polynomials forms a semigroup, which we call {\it Liskova semigroup}. We show that polynomials frequently appearing in Representation Theory and Combinatorics belong to the Liskova semigroup. Among such polynomials we study rectangular $q$-Catalan numbers; generalized exponents polynomials; principal specializations of the internal product of Schur functions; generalized $q$-Gaussian polynomi…
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 make a systematic study of a new combinatorial construction called a dual equivalence graph. We axiomatize these graphs and prove that their generating functions are symmetric and Schur positive. By constructing a graph on ribbon tableaux which we transform into a dual equivalence graph, we give a combinatorial proof of the symmetry and Schur positivity of the ribbon tableaux generating functions introduced by Lascoux, Leclerc and Thibon. Using Haglund's formula for the transformed Macdonald polynomials, this also gives a combinatorial formula for the Schur expansion of Macdonald polynomial…
For a $(3+1)$-free poset $P$, we define a hybrid of $P$-tableaux and cylindric tableaux called cylindric $P$-tableaux. We introduce $P$-analogs of cylindric Schur functions, defined by a determinantal formula, and prove that they are the weight generating functions of cylindric $P$-tableaux. We deduce that certain sums of the $e$-expansion coefficients of the chromatic symmetric function $X_{inc(P)}$ are positive. This improves on Gasharov's theorem on the Schur positivity of $X_{inc(P)}$ and gives further evidence for the Stanley-Stembridge conjecture.
The branching of (k-1)-Schur functions into k-Schur functions was given by Lapointe, Lam, Morse and Shimozono as chains in a poset on k-shapes. The k-Schur functions are the parameterless case of a more general family of symmetric functions over Q(t), conjectured to satisfy a k-branching formula given by weights on the k-shape poset. A concept of a (co)charge on a k-tableau was defined by Lapointe and Pinto. Although it is not manifestly positive, they prove it is compatible with the k-shape poset for standard k-tableau and the positivity follows. Morse introduced a manifestly positive notion …
A new descent set statistic on involutions, defined geometrically via their interpretation as matchings, is introduced in this paper, and shown to be equi-distributed with the standard one. This concept is then applied to construct explicit cyclic descent extensions on involutions, standard Young tableaux and Motzkin paths. Schur-positivity of the associated quasisymmetric functions follows.
Kostka-Foulkes polynomials are Lusztig's $q$-analogues of weight multiplicities for irreducible representations of semisimple Lie algebras. It has long been known that these polynomials have non-negative coefficients. A statistic on semistandard Young tableaux with partition content, called \textit{charge}, was used to give a combinatorial formula exhibiting this fact in type $A$. Defining a charge statistic beyond type $A$ has been a long-standing problem. Here, we take a completely new approach based on the definition of Kostka-Foulkes polynomials as an alternating sum over Kostant partition…
Using the expansion of the inverse of the Kostka matrix in terms of tabloids as presented by Egecioglu and Remmel, we show that the fusion coefficients can be expressed as an alternating sum over cylindric tableaux. Cylindric tableaux are skew tableaux with a certain cyclic symmetry. When the skew shape of the tableau has a cutting point, meaning that the cylindric skew shape is not connected, or if its weight has at most two parts, we give a positive combinatorial formula for the fusion coefficients. The proof uses a slight modification of a sign-reversing involution introduced by Remmel and …
Over the past years, major attention has been drawn to the question of identifying Schur-positive sets, i.e. sets of permutations whose associated quasisymmetric function is symmetric and can be written as a non-negative sum of Schur symmetric functions. The set of arc permutations, i.e. the set of permutations $π$ in $S_n$ such that for any $1\leq j \leq n$, $\{π(1),π(2),\dots,π(j)\}$ is an interval in $\mathbb{Z}_n$ is one of the most noticeable examples. This paper introduces a new type B extension of Schur-positivity to signed permutations based on Chow's quasisymmetric functions and gener…
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.
We present a family of analogs of the Hall-Littlewood symmetric functions in the $Q$-function algebra. The change of basis coefficients between this family and Schur's $Q$-functions are $q$-analogs of numbers of marked shifted tableaux. These coefficients exhibit many parallel properties to the Kostka-Foulkes polynomials.
Haglund's conjecture states that $\dfrac{\langle J_λ(q,q^k),s_μ\rangle}{(1-q)^{|λ|}} \in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0}[q]$ for all partitions $λ,μ$ and all non-negative integers $k$, where $J_λ$ is the integral form Macdonald symmetric function and $s_μ$ is the Schur function. This paper proves Haglund's conjecture in the cases when the pair $(λ,μ)$ satisfies $K_{λ,μ}=1$ or $K_{μ',λ'}=1$ where $K$ denotes the Kostka number. We also obtain some general results about the transition matrix between Macdonald symmetric functions and Schur functions.
Stanley has studied a symmetric function generalization X_G of the chromatic polynomial of a graph G. The innocent-looking Stanley-Stembridge Poset Chain Conjecture states that the expansion of X_G in terms of elementary symmetric functions has nonnegative coefficients if G is a clawfree incomparability graph. Here we give a combinatorial interpretation of these coefficients by combining Gasharov's work on the conjecture with Egecioglu and Remmel's combinatorial interpretation of the inverse Kostka matrix. This gives a new proof of a partial nonnegativity result of Stanley. As an interesting b…
This paper studies the properties of Demazure atoms and characters using linear operators and also tableaux-combinatorics. It proves the atom-positivity property of the product of a dominating monomial and an atom, which was an open problem. Furthermore, it provides a combinatorial proof to the key-positivity property of the product of a dominating monomial and a key using skyline fillings, an algebraic proof to the key-positivity property of the product of a Schur function and a key using linear operator and verifies the first open case for the conjecture of key-positivity of the product of t…
Permutation tableaux are combinatorial objects related with permutations and various statistics on them. They appeared in connection with total positivity in Grassmannians, and stationary probabilities in a PASEP model. In particular they gave rise to an interesting q-analog of Eulerian numbers. The purpose of this article is to study some combinatorial properties of type B permutation tableaux, defined by Lam and Williams, and links with signed permutation statistics. We show that many of the tools used for permutation tableaux generalize in this case, including: the Matrix Ansatz (a method o…
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 chromatic symmetric function of a graph is a generalization of the chromatic polynomial. The key motivation for studying the structure of a chromatic symmetric function is to answer positivity conjectures by Stanley in 1995 and Gasharov in 1996. As a symmetric function one can write the chromatic symmetric function in the basis of Schur functions. In this paper we address the positivity of the Schur coefficients when the parameter of the Schur function is a hook shape. Furthermore, when a graph is the incomparability graph of a poset with specific properties we construct a correspondence b…
We use crystals of tableaux and descent compositions to understand the decomposition of Schur functions $s_λ$ into Gessel's fundamental quasisymmetric functions $F_α$. The connected crystal of tableaux $B(λ)$, associated to $s_λ$, is shown to be partitionned into a disjoint union of connected induced subgraphs $B(T_α)$ corresponding to the $F_α$'s. We show that these subgraphs, which we call quasicrystals, are isomorphic (as graphs) to specific crystals of tableaux. This allows us to give a formula for the number of tableaux of shape $λ$ and maximal entry $n$. We also use this setting to give …
Let $Λ$ be the space of symmetric functions and $V_k$ be the subspace spanned by the modified Schur functions $\{S_λ[X/(1-t)]\}_{λ_1\leq k}$. We introduce a new family of symmetric polynomials, $\{A_λ^{(k)}[X;t]\}_{λ_1\leq k}$, constructed from sums of tableaux using the charge statistic. We conjecture that the polynomials $A_λ^{(k)}[X;t]$ form a basis for $V_k$ and that the Macdonald polynomials indexed by partitions whose first part is not larger than $k$ expand positively in terms of our polynomials. A proof of this conjecture would not only imply the Macdonald positivity conjecture, but wo…
We introduce a new basis for quasisymmetric functions, which arise from a specialization of nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials to standard bases, also known as Demazure atoms. Our new basis is called the basis of quasisymmetric Schur functions, since the basis elements refine Schur functions in a natural way. We derive expansions for quasisymmetric Schur functions in terms of monomial and fundamental quasisymmetric functions, which give rise to quasisymmetric refinements of Kostka numbers and standard (reverse) tableaux. From here we derive a Pieri rule for quasisymmetric Schur functions that …
We study the isospectral Hilbert scheme X_n, defined as the reduced fiber product of C^2n with the Hilbert scheme H_n of points in the plane, over the symmetric power S^n C^2. We prove that X_n is normal, Cohen-Macaulay, and Gorenstein, and hence flat over H_n. We derive two important consequences. (1) We prove the strong form of the "n! conjecture" of Garsia and the author, giving a representation-theoretic interpretation of the Kostka-Macdonald coefficients K_{lambda,mu}(q,t). This establishes the Macdonald positivity conjecture, that K_{lambda,mu}(q,t) is always a polynomial with non-negati…
An explicit formula for Koornwinder moments and Rains' positivity conjecture
Sungkyunkwan University（成均馆大学）；Ewha Womans University（梨花女子大学）；Research Center for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Shandong University（山东大学数学与交叉科学研究中心）；Yonsei University（延世大学）
A generalization of the Macdonald polynomials depending upon both commuting and anticommuting variables has been introduced recently. The construction relies on certain orthogonality and triangularity relations. Although many superpolynomials were constructed as solutions of highly over-determined system, the existence issue was left open. This is resolved here: we demonstrate that the underlying construction has a (unique) solution. The proof uses, as a starting point, the definition of the Macdonald superpolynomials in terms of the Macdonald non-symmetric polynomials via a non-standard (anti…
