A Combinatorial Formula for Macdonald Polynomials

We prove a combinatorial formula for the Macdonald polynomial H_mu(x;q,t) which had been conjectured by the first author. Corollaries to our main theorem include the expansion of H_mu(x;q,t) in terms of LLT polynomials, a new proof of the charge formula of Lascoux and Schutzenberger for Hall-Littlewood polynomials, a new proof of Knop and Sahi's combinatorial formula for Jack polynomials as well as a lifting of their formula to integral form Macdonald polynomials, and a new combinatorial rule for the Kostka-Macdonald coefficients K_{lambda,mu}(q,t) in the case that mu is a partition with parts less than or equal to 2.