A Combinatorial Bijection on di-sk Trees

A di-sk tree is a rooted binary tree whose nodes are labeled by $\oplus$ or $\ominus$, and no node has the same label as its right child. The di-sk trees are in natural bijection with separable permutations. We construct a combinatorial bijection on di-sk trees proving the two quintuples $(\mathrm{LMAX},\mathrm{LMIN},\mathrm{DESB},\mathsf{iar},\mathsf{comp})$ and $(\mathrm{LMAX},\mathrm{LMIN},\mathrm{DESB},\mathsf{comp},\mathsf{iar})$ have the same distribution over separable permutations. Here for a permutation $\pi$, $\mathrm{LMAX}(\pi)/\mathrm{LMIN}(\pi)$ is the set of values of the left-to-right maxima/minima of $\pi$ and $\mathrm{DESB}(\pi)$ is the set of descent bottoms of $\pi$, while $\mathsf{comp}(\pi)$ and $\mathsf{iar}(\pi)$ are respectively the number of components of $\pi$ and the length of initial ascending run of $\pi$. Interestingly, our bijection specializes to a bijection on $312$-avoiding permutations, which provides (up to the classical Knuth–Richards bijection) an alternative approach to a result of Rubey (2016) that asserts the two triples $(\mathrm{LMAX},\mathsf{iar},\mathsf{comp})$ and $(\mathrm{LMAX},\mathsf{comp},\mathsf{iar})$ are equidistributed on $321$-avoiding permutations. Rubey's result is a symmetric extension of an equidistribution due to Adin–Bagno–Roichman, which implies the class of $321$-avoiding permutations with a prescribed number of components is Schur positive. Some equidistribution results for various statistics concerning tree traversal are presented in the end.

Boolean Product Polynomials, Schur Positivity, and Chern Plethysm

Let $k \leq n$ be positive integers, and let $X_n = (x_1, \dots , x_n)$ be a list of $n$ variables. The Boolean product polynomial $B_{n,k}(X_n)$ is the product of the linear forms $\sum _{i \in S} x_i$, where $S$ ranges over all $k$-element subsets of $\{1, 2, \dots , n\}$. We prove that Boolean product polynomials are Schur positive. We do this via a new method of proving Schur positivity using vector bundles and a symmetric function operation we call Chern plethysm. This gives a geometric method for producing a vast array of Schur positive polynomials whose Schur positivity lacks (at present) a combinatorial or representation theoretic proof. We relate the polynomials $B_{n,k}(X_n)$ for certain $k$ to other combinatorial objects including derangements, positroids, alternating sign matrices, and reverse flagged fillings of a partition shape. We also relate $B_{n,n-1}(X_n)$ to a bigraded action of the symmetric group ${\mathfrak{S}}_n$ on a divergence free quotient of superspace.

A Counterexample to a Conjecture on Schur Positivity of Chromatic Symmetric Functions of trees

We show that no tree on twenty vertices with maximum degree ten has Schur positive chromatic symmetric function, thereby providing a counterexample to a conjecture of Dahlberg, She and van Willigenburg.

Schur-positivity via products of grid classes

International audience Characterizing sets of permutations whose associated quasisymmetric function is symmetric and Schur- positive is a long-standing problem in algebraic combinatorics. In this paper we present a general method to construct Schur-positive sets and multisets, based on geometric grid classes and the product operation. Our approach produces many new instances of Schur-positive sets, and provides a broad framework that explains the existence of known such sets that until now were sporadic cases.

On Cyclic Schur-Positive Sets of Permutations

We introduce a notion of cyclic Schur-positivity for sets of permutations, which naturally extends the classical notion of Schur-positivity, and it involves the existence of a bijection from permutations to standard Young tableaux that preserves the cyclic descent set. Cyclic Schur-positive sets of permutations are always Schur-positive, but the converse does not hold, as exemplified by inverse descent classes, Knuth classes and conjugacy classes. In this paper we show that certain classes of permutations invariant under either horizontal or vertical rotation are cyclic Schur-positive. The proof unveils a new equidistribution phenomenon of descent sets on permutations, provides affirmative solutions to conjectures by the last two authors and by Adin–Gessel–Reiner–Roichman, and yields new examples of Schur-positive sets.

On a Positivity Conjecture in the Character Table of $S_n$

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 conjecture and establish its truth in the following special cases: for $\mu\in [(n-4,1^4), (n)]$ or $\mu\in [(1^n), (3,1^{n-3})], $ or $\mu=(3, 2^k, 1^r)$ when $k\geq 1$ and $0\leq r\leq 2.$ Many new Schur positivity questions are presented.

Necessary Conditions for Schur-Maximality

McNamara and Pylyavskyy conjectured precisely which connected skew shapes are maximal in the Schur-positivity order, which says that $B\leq _s A$ if $s_A-s_B$ is Schur-positive. Towards this, McNamara and van Willigenburg proved that it suffices to study equitable ribbons, namely ribbons whose row lengths are all of length $a$ or $(a+1)$ for $a\geq 2$. In this paper we confirm the conjecture of McNamara and Pylyavskyy in all cases where the comparable equitable ribbons form a chain. We also confirm a conjecture of McNamara and van Willigenburg regarding which equitable ribbons in general are minimal. Additionally, we establish two sufficient conditions for the difference of two ribbons to be Schur-positive, which manifest as diagrammatic operations on ribbons. We also deduce two necessary conditions for the difference of two equitable ribbons to be Schur-positive that rely on rows of length $a$ being at the end, or on rows of length $(a+1)$ being evenly distributed.