English

The probability of positivity in symmetric and quasisymmetric functions

Combinatorics 2021-03-29 v3

Abstract

Given an element in a finite-dimensional real vector space, VV, that is a nonnegative linear combination of basis vectors for some basis BB, we compute the probability that it is furthermore a nonnegative linear combination of basis vectors for a second basis, AA. We then apply this general result to combinatorially compute the probability that a symmetric function is Schur-positive (recovering the recent result of Bergeron--Patrias--Reiner), ee-positive or hh-positive. Similarly we compute the probability that a quasisymmetric function is quasisymmetric Schur-positive or fundamental-positive. In every case we conclude that the probability tends to zero as the degree of a function tends to infinity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1810.11038,
  title  = {The probability of positivity in symmetric and quasisymmetric functions},
  author = {Rebecca Patrias and Stephanie van Willigenburg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.11038},
  year   = {2021}
}