English

Quasisymmetric Schur functions

Combinatorics 2010-11-30 v2

Abstract

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 tt parameter from Hall-Littlewood theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.2489,
  title  = {Quasisymmetric Schur functions},
  author = {J. Haglund and K. Luoto and S. Mason and S. van Willigenburg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.2489},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

30 pages; references added; new subsections on transition matrices, how to include the $t$ parameter from Hall-Littlewood theory and further avenues; new survey of combinatorial formulas for Macdonald polynomials, including an expansion of Macdonald polynomials into fundamental quasisymmetric functions

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:30:39.336Z