Related papers: Schur log-concavity and the quantum Pascal triangl…
Chen proposed a conjecture on the log-concavity of the generating function for the symmetric group with respect to the length of longest increasing subsequences of permutations. Motivated by Chen's log-concavity conjecture, B\'{o}na,…
We show that normalized Schur polynomials are strongly log-concave. As a consequence, we obtain Okounkov's log-concavity conjecture for Littlewood-Richardson coefficients in the special case of Kostka numbers.
Determining if a symmetric function is Schur-positive is a prevalent and, in general, a notoriously difficult problem. In this paper we study the Schur-positivity of a family of symmetric functions. Given a partition \lambda, we denote by…
Cylindric Schur functions are a family of symmetric functions that generalize skew Schur functions. We give a short proof that skew cylindric Schur functions expand positively in terms of non-skew cylindric Schur functions. In particular,…
We prove Okounkov's conjecture, a conjecture of Fomin-Fulton-Li-Poon, and a special case of Lascoux-Leclerc-Thibon's conjecture on Schur positivity and give several more general statements using a recent result of Rhoades and Skandera. An…
We consider families of quasisymmetric functions with the property that if a symmetric function $f$ is a positive sum of functions in one of these families, then f is necessarily a positive sum of Schur functions. Furthermore, in each of…
The product $s_\mu s_\nu$ of two Schur functions is one of the most famous examples of a Schur-positive function, i.e. a symmetric function which, when written as a linear combination of Schur functions, has all positive coefficients. We…
Euler's gamma function is logarithmically convex on positive semi-axis. Additivity of logarithmic convexity implies that the function sum of gammas with non-negative coefficients is also log-convex. In this paper we investigate the series…
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…
A triangle $\{a(n,k)\}_{0\le k\le n}$ of nonnegative numbers is LC-positive if for each $r$, the sequence of polynomials $\sum_{k=r}^{n}a(n,k)q^k$ is $q$-log-concave. It is double LC-positive if both triangles $\{a(n,k)\}$ and…
We prove a conjecture of Liu and Wang on the q-log-convexity of the polynomial sequence $\{\sum_{k=0}^n{n\choose k}^2q^k\}_{n\geq 0}$. By using Pieri's rule and the Jacobi-Trudi identity for Schur functions, we obtain an expansion of a sum…
A graph is Schur-positive if its chromatic symmetric function expands non-negatively in the Schur basis. We determine a full Schur-positivity classification for complete multipartite graphs by showing that a complete multipartite graph…
This is a short note about Schur positivity. We introduce Schur polynomials and explain how they appear in the representation theory of the general linear group. We end with a new result of the author with F. Bergeron and V. Reiner that…
In previous work of this author it was conjectured that the sum of power sums $p_\lambda,$ for partitions $\lambda$ ranging over an interval $[(1^n), \mu]$ in reverse lexicographic order, is Schur-positive. Here we investigate this…
To any Schur polynomial $s_{\lambda}$ one can associated its derived polynomials $s_{\lambda}{(i)}$ $i=0,\ldots,|\lambda|$ by the rule $$s_{\lambda}(x_1+t,\ldots,x_n+t) = \sum_i s_{\lambda}^{(i)}(x_1,\ldots,x_n) t^i.$$ We conjecture that…
Given a sequence (a_k) = a_0, a_1, a_2,... of real numbers, define a new sequence L(a_k) = (b_k) where b_k = a_k^2 - a_{k-1} a_{k+1}. So (a_k) is log-concave if and only if (b_k) is a nonnegative sequence. Call (a_k) "infinitely…
A graph is Schur-positive if its chromatic symmetric function expands nonnegatively in the Schur basis. All claw-free graphs are conjectured to be Schur-positive. We introduce a combinatorial object corresponding to a graph G, called a…
Let $\mathbb{N}$ denote the set of non-negative integers. Haglund, Wilson, and the second author have conjectured that the coefficient of any Schur function $s_\lambda[X]$ in $\Delta_{e_k} e_n[X]$ is a polynomial in $\mathbb{N}[q,t]$. We…
McNamara and Sagan conjectured that if $a_0,a_1, a_2, \ldots$ is a P\'olya frequency (PF) sequence, then so is $a_0^2, a_1^2 -a_0a_2, a_2^2-a_1a_3, \ldots$. We prove this conjecture for a natural class of PF-sequences which are interpolated…
We formulate many open questions regarding the Schur positivity of the effect of interesting operators on symmetric functions, and give supporting evidence for why one should expect such behavior.