Decomposable compositions, symmetric quasisymmetric functions and equality of ribbon Schur functions

We define an equivalence relation on integer compositions and show that two ribbon Schur functions are identical if and only if their defining compositions are equivalent in this sense. This equivalence is completely determined by means of a factorization for compositions: equivalent compositions have factorizations that differ only by reversing some of the terms. As an application, we can derive identities on certain Littlewood-Richardson coefficients.Finally, we consider the cone of symmetric functions having a nonnnegative representation in terms of the fundamental quasisymmetric basis. We show the Schur functions are among the extremes of this cone and conjecture its facets are in bijection with the equivalence classes of compositions.     

Peak quasisymmetric functions and Eulerian enumeration

Via duality of Hopf algebras, there is a direct association between peak quasisymmetric functions and enumeration of chains in Eulerian posets. We study this association explicitly, showing that the notion of cd-index, long studied in the context of convex polytopes and Eulerian posets, arises as the dual basis to a natural basis of peak quasisymmetric functions introduced by Stembridge. Thus Eulerian posets having a nonnegative cd-index (for example, face lattices of convex polytopes) correspond to peak quasisymmetric functions having a nonnegative representation in terms of this basis. We diagonalize the operator that associates the basis of descent sets for all quasisymmetric functions to that of peak sets for the algebra of peak functions, and study the g-polynomial for Eulerian posets as an algebra homomorphism.     

Cylindric skew Schur functions

Cylindric skew Schur functions, which are a generalisation of skew Schur functions, arise naturally in the study of P-partitions. Also, recent work of A. Postnikov shows they have a strong connection with a problem of considerable current interest: that of finding a combinatorial proof of the non-negativity of the 3-point Gromov-Witten invariants. After explaining these motivations, we study cylindric skew Schur functions from the point of view of Schur-positivity. Using a result of I. Gessel and C. Krattenthaler, we generalise a formula of A. Bertram, I. Ciocan-Fontanine and W. Fulton, thus giving an expansion of an arbitrary cylindric skew Schur function in terms of skew Schur functions. While we show that no non-trivial cylindric skew Schur functions are Schur-positive, we conjecture that this can be reconciled using the new concept of cylindric Schur-positivity.     

Multiplicity Free Schur, Skew Schur, and Quasisymmetric Schur Functions

In this paper we classify all Schur functions and skew Schur functions that are multiplicity free when expanded in the basis of fundamental quasisymmetric functions, termed F-multiplicity free. Combinatorially, this is equivalent to classifying all skew shapes whose standard Young tableaux have distinct descent sets. We then generalize our setting, and classify all F-multiplicity free quasisymmetric Schur functions with one or two terms in the expansion, or one or two parts in the indexing composition. This identifies composition shapes such that all standard composition tableaux of that shape have distinct descent sets. We conclude by providing such a classification for quasisymmetric Schur function families, giving a classification of Schur functions that are in some sense almost F-multiplicity free.     

Higher Order Peak Algebras

Using the theory of noncommutative symmetric functions, we introduce the higher order peak algebras (Sym(N))_N≥1, a sequence of graded Hopf algebras which contain the descent algebra and the usual peak algebra as initial cases (N=1 and N=2). We compute their Hilbert series, introduce and study several combinatorial bases, and establish various algebraic identities related to the multisection of formal power series with noncommutative coefficients. Received November 19, 2004     

Quasisymmetric Schur functions

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 naturally refines the Pieri rule for Schur functions. After surveying combinatorial formulas for Macdonald polynomials, including an expansion of Macdonald polynomials into fundamental quasisymmetric functions, we show how some of our results can be extended to include the t parameter from Hall-Littlewood theory.     

Generalized Littlewood–Richardson rule and sum of coadjoint orbits of compact Lie groups

Let G be a compact connected semisimple Lie group. We extend to all irreducible finite-dimensional representations of G a result of Heckman which provides a relation between the generalized Littlewood–Richardson rule and the sum of G-coadjoint orbits. As an application of our result, we describe the eigenvalues of a sum of two real skew-symmetric matrices.     

Row-Strict Quasisymmetric Schur Functions

Haglund, Luoto, Mason, and van Willigenburg introduced a basis for quasisymmetric functions, called the quasisymmetric Schur function basis, generated combinatorially through fillings of composition diagrams in much the same way as Schur functions are generated through reverse column-strict tableaux. We introduce a new basis for quasisymmetric functions, called the row-strict quasisymmetric Schur function basis, generated combinatorially through fillings of composition diagrams in much the same way as quasisymmetic Schur functions are generated through fillings of composition diagrams. We describe the relationship between this new basis and other known bases for quasisymmetric functions, as well as its relationship to Schur polynomials. We obtain a refinement of the omega transform operator as a result of these relationships.     

Eulerian quasisymmetric functions for the type B Coxeter group and other wreath product groups

Eulerian quasisymmetric functions were introduced by Shareshian and Wachs in order to obtain a q-analog of Euler?s exponential generating function formula for the Eulerian numbers (Shareshian and Wachs, 2010 [17]). They are defined via the symmetric group, and applying the stable and nonstable principal specializations yields formulas for joint distributions of permutation statistics. We consider the wreath product of the cyclic group with the symmetric group, also known as the group of colored permutations. We use this group to introduce colored Eulerian quasisymmetric functions, which are a generalization of Eulerian quasisymmetric functions. We derive a formula for the generating function of these colored Eulerian quasisymmetric functions, which reduces to a formula of Shareshian and Wachs for the Eulerian quasisymmetric functions. We show that applying the stable and nonstable principal specializations yields formulas for joint distributions of colored permutation statistics, which generalize the Shareshian–Wachs q-analog of Euler?s formula, formulas of Foata and Han, and a formula of Chow and Gessel.     

Coincidences among skew Schur functions

New sufficient conditions and necessary conditions are developed for two skew diagrams to give rise to the same skew Schur function. The sufficient conditions come from a variety of new operations related to ribbons (also known as border strips or rim hooks). The necessary conditions relate to the extent of overlap among the rows or among the columns of the skew diagram.     

The shifted plactic monoid

We introduce a shifted analog of the plactic monoid of Lascoux and Schützenberger, the shifted plactic monoid. It can be defined in two different ways: via the 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 more.     

Multiplying Schur functions

A new combinatorial rule for expanding the product of Schur functions as a sum of Schur functions is formulated. The rule has several advantages over the Littlewood-Richardson rule (D. E. Littlewood and A. R. Richardson, Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London Ser. A233 (1934), 49–141). First this rule allows for direct computation of the expansion of the product of any number of Schur functions, not just the product of two Schur functions. Also, the rule is easily stated and is well suited to computer implementation. It is shown that the rule implies the Littlewood-Richardson rule and gives a combinatorial proof that the coefficient of S_λ in the product S_μS_ν equals the coefficient of S_ν in the expansion of the skew Schur function S_λ/μ. The rule is derived from some results proved independently by A. P. Hillman and R. M. Grassl (J. Combin. Comput. Sci. Systems5 (1980), 305–316) and by D. White (J. Combin. Theory Ser. A30 (1981), 237–247) on the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence.     

Schur type functions associated with polynomial sequences of binomial type

We introduce a class of Schur type functions associated with polynomial sequences of binomial type. This can be regarded as a generalization of the ordinary Schur functions and the factorial Schur functions. This generalization satisfies some interesting expansion formulas, in which there is a curious duality. Moreover, this class includes examples which are useful to describe the eigenvalues of Capelli type central elements of the universal enveloping algebras of classical Lie algebras.      

Eulerian quasisymmetric functions

We introduce a family of quasisymmetric functions called Eulerian quasisymmetric functions, which specialize to enumerators for the joint distribution of the permutation statistics, major index and excedance number on permutations of fixed cycle type. This family is analogous to a family of quasisymmetric functions that Gessel and Reutenauer used to study the joint distribution of major index and descent number on permutations of fixed cycle type. Our central result is a formula for the generating function for the Eulerian quasisymmetric functions, which specializes to a new and surprising q-analog of a classical formula of Euler for the exponential generating function of the Eulerian polynomials. This q-analog computes the joint distribution of excedance number and major index, the only of the four important Euler-Mahonian distributions that had not yet been computed. Our study of the Eulerian quasisymmetric functions also yields results that include the descent statistic and refine results of Gessel and Reutenauer. We also obtain q-analogs, (q,p)-analogs and quasisymmetric function analogs of classical results on the symmetry and unimodality of the Eulerian polynomials. Our Eulerian quasisymmetric functions refine symmetric functions that have occurred in various representation theoretic and enumerative contexts including MacMahon's study of multiset derangements, work of Procesi and Stanley on toric varieties of Coxeter complexes, Stanley's work on chromatic symmetric functions, and the work of the authors on the homology of a certain poset introduced by Björner and Welker.     

Equality of Schur and Skew Schur Functions

We determine the precise conditions under which any skew Schur function is equal to a Schur function over both infinitely and finitely many variables. Received May 29, 2004     

The Schur group of an abelian number field

We characterize the maximum r-local index of a Schur algebra over an abelian number field K in terms of global information determined by the field K for an arbitrary rational prime, r. This completes and unifies previous results of Janusz in [G.J. Janusz, The Schur group of an algebraic number field, Ann. of Math. (2) 103 (1976) 253-281] and Pendergrass in [J.W. Pendergrass, The 2-part of the Schur group, J. Algebra 41 (1976) 422-438].     

Integral Schur algebras forGL 2

The structure of Schur algebrasS(2,r) over the integral domainZ is intensively studied from the quasi-hereditary algebra point of view. We introduce certain new bases forS(2,r) and show that the Schur algebraS(2,r) modulo any ideal in the defining sequence is still such a Schur algebra of lower degree inr. A Wedderburn-Artin decomposition ofS _K (2,r) over a fieldK of characteristic 0 is described. Finally, we investigate the extension groups between two Weyl modules and classify the indecomposable Weyl-filtered modules for the Schur algebrasS _Zp(2,r) withr<p ² . Research supported by ARC Large Grant L20.24210     

Staircase skew Schur functions are Schur P-positive

We prove Stanley??s conjecture that, if ?? _n is the staircase shape, then the skew Schur functions $s_{\delta_{n} / \mu}$ are non-negative sums of Schur P-functions. We prove that the coefficients in this sum count certain fillings of shifted shapes. In particular, for the skew Schur function $s_{\delta_{n} / \delta _{n-2}}$ , we discuss connections with Eulerian numbers and alternating permutations.     

Skew quantum Murnaghan–Nakayama rule

We extend recent results of Assaf and McNamara on a skew Pieri rule and a skew Murnaghan–Nakayama rule to a more general identity, which gives an elegant expansion of the product of a skew Schur function with a quantum power sum function in terms of skew Schur functions. We give two proofs, one completely bijective in the spirit of Assaf–McNamara’s original proof, and one via Lam–Lauve–Sotille’s skew Littlewood–Richardson rule. We end with some conjectures for skew rules for Hall–Littlewood polynomials.