Given a permutation statistic $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}$, define its inverse statistic $\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}$ by . We give a general approach, based on the theory of symmetric functions, for finding the joint distribution of $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}_{2}$ whenever $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{2}$ are descent statistics: permutation statistics that depend only on the descent composition. We apply this method to a number of descent statistics, including the descent number, the peak number, the left peak number, the number of up-down runs and the major index. Perhaps surprisingly, in many cases the polynomial giving the joint distribution of $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}_{2}$ can be expressed as a simple sum involving products of the polynomials giving the (individual) distributions of $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{2}$. Our work leads to a rederivation of Stanley’s generating function for doubly alternating permutations, as well as several conjectures concerning real-rootedness and $\gamma $-positivity.

In this paper, we give Pieri rules for skew dual immaculate functions and their recently discovered row-strict counterparts. We establish our rules using a right-action analogue of the skew Littlewood–Richardson rule for Hopf algebras of Lam–Lauve–Sottile. We also obtain Pieri rules for row-strict (dual) immaculate functions.

We give an elementary symmetric function expansion for the expressions $M\Delta _{m_\gamma e_1}\Pi e_\lambda ^{\ast }$ and $M\Delta _{m_\gamma e_1}\Pi s_\lambda ^{\ast }$ when $t=1$ in terms of what we call $\gamma $-parking functions and lattice $\gamma $-parking functions. Here, $\Delta _F$ and $\Pi $ are certain eigenoperators of the modified Macdonald basis and $M=(1-q)(1-t)$. Our main results, in turn, give an elementary basis expansion at $t=1$ for symmetric functions of the form $M \Delta _{Fe_1} \Theta _{G} J$ whenever F is expanded in terms of monomials, G is expanded in terms of the elementary basis, and J is expanded in terms of the modified elementary basis $\{\Pi e_\lambda ^\ast \}_\lambda $. Even the most special cases of this general Delta and Theta operator expression are significant; we highlight a few of these special cases. We end by giving an e-positivity conjecture for when t is not specialized, proposing that our objects can also give the elementary basis expansion in the unspecialized symmetric function.

The K-theoretic Schur P- and Q-functions $G\hspace {-0.2mm}P_\lambda $ and $G\hspace {-0.2mm}Q_\lambda $ may be concretely defined as weight-generating functions for semistandard shifted set-valued tableaux. These symmetric functions are the shifted analogues of stable Grothendieck polynomials and were introduced by Ikeda and Naruse for applications in geometry. Nakagawa and Naruse specified families of dual K-theoretic Schur P- and Q-functions $g\hspace {-0.1mm}p_\lambda $ and $g\hspace {-0.1mm}q_\lambda $ via a Cauchy identity involving $G\hspace {-0.2mm}P_\lambda $ and $G\hspace {-0.2mm}Q_\lambda $. They conjectured that the dual power series are weight-generating functions for certain shifted plane partitions. We prove this conjecture. We also derive a related generating function formula for the images of $g\hspace {-0.1mm}p_\lambda $ and $g\hspace {-0.1mm}q_\lambda $ under the $\omega $ involution of the ring of symmetric functions. This confirms a conjecture of Chiu and the second author. Using these results, we verify a conjecture of Ikeda and Naruse that the $G\hspace {-0.2mm}Q$-functions are a basis for a ring.

We give explicit presentations of the integral equivariant cohomology of the affine Grassmannians and flag varieties in type A, arising from their natural embeddings in the corresponding infinite (Sato) Grassmannian and flag variety. These presentations are compared with results obtained by Lam and Shimozono, for rational equivariant cohomology of the affine Grassmannian, and by Larson, for the integral cohomology of the moduli stack of vector bundles on .

For any branched double covering of compact Riemann surfaces, we consider the associated character varieties that are unitary in the global sense, which we call $\operatorname {\mathrm {GL}}_n\rtimes \!<\!\sigma {>}$-character varieties. We restrict the monodromies around the branch points to generic semi-simple conjugacy classes contained in $\operatorname {\mathrm {GL}}_n\sigma $ and compute the E-polynomials of these character varieties using the character table of $\operatorname {\mathrm {GL}}_n(q)\rtimes \!<\!\sigma \!>\!$. The result is expressed as the inner product of certain symmetric functions associated to the wreath product $(\mathbb {Z}/2\mathbb {Z})^N\rtimes \mathfrak {S}_N$. We are then led to a conjectural formula for the mixed Hodge polynomial, which involves (modified) Macdonald polynomials and wreath Macdonald polynomials.

Iterating the skew RSK correspondence discovered by Sagan and Stanley in the late 1980s, we define deterministic dynamics on the space of pairs of skew Young tableaux $(P,Q)$. We find that these skew RSK dynamics display conservation laws which, in the picture of Viennot’s shadow line construction, identify generalizations of Greene invariants. The introduction of a novel realization of $0$-th Kashiwara operators reveals that the skew RSK dynamics possess symmetries induced by an affine bicrystal structure, which, combined with connectedness properties of Demazure crystals, leads to the linearization of the time evolution. Studying asymptotic evolution of the dynamics started from a pair of skew tableaux $(P,Q)$, we discover a new bijection $\Upsilon : (P,Q) \mapsto (V,W; \kappa , \nu )$. Here, $(V,W)$ is a pair of vertically strict tableaux, that is, column strict fillings of Young diagrams with no condition on rows, with the shape prescribed by the Greene invariant, $\kappa $ is an array of nonnegative weights and $\nu $ is a partition. An application of this construction is the first bijective proof of Cauchy and Littlewood identities involving q-Whittaker polynomials. New identities relating sums of q-Whittaker and Schur polynomials are also presented.

We study some combinatorial properties of higher-dimensional partitions which generalize plane partitions. We present a natural bijection between d-dimensional partitions and d-dimensional arrays of nonnegative integers. This bijection has a number of important applications. We introduce a statistic on d-dimensional partitions, called the corner-hook volume, whose generating function has the formula of MacMahon’s conjecture. We obtain multivariable formulas whose specializations give analogues of various formulas known for plane partitions. We also introduce higher-dimensional analogues of dual stable Grothendieck polynomials which are quasisymmetric functions and whose specializations enumerate higher-dimensional partitions of a given shape. Finally, we show probabilistic connections with a directed last passage percolation model in $\mathbb {Z}^d$.

We generalize the shuffle theorem and its $(km,kn)$ version, as conjectured by Haglund et al. and Bergeron et al. and proven by Carlsson and Mellit, and Mellit, respectively. In our version the $(km,kn)$ Dyck paths on the combinatorial side are replaced by lattice paths lying under a line segment whose x and y intercepts need not be integers, and the algebraic side is given either by a Schiffmann algebra operator formula or an equivalent explicit raising operator formula. We derive our combinatorial identity as the polynomial truncation of an identity of infinite series of $\operatorname {\mathrm {GL}}_{l}$ characters, expressed in terms of infinite series versions of LLT polynomials. The series identity in question follows from a Cauchy identity for nonsymmetric Hall–Littlewood polynomials.

We prove the extended delta conjecture of Haglund, Remmel and Wilson, a combinatorial formula for $\Delta _{h_l}\Delta ' _{e_k} e_{n}$ , where $\Delta ' _{e_k}$ and $\Delta _{h_l}$ are Macdonald eigenoperators and $e_n$ is an elementary symmetric function. We actually prove a stronger identity of infinite series of $\operatorname {\mathrm {GL}}_m$ characters expressed in terms of LLT series. This is achieved through new results in the theory of the Schiffmann algebra and its action on the algebra of symmetric functions.

We study the ring of quasisymmetric polynomials in n anticommuting (fermionic) variables. Let $R_n$ denote the ring of polynomials in n anticommuting variables. The main results of this paper show the following interesting facts about quasisymmetric polynomials in anticommuting variables:

1. (1) The quasisymmetric polynomials in $R_n$ form a commutative subalgebra of $R_n$.

2. (2) There is a basis of the quotient of $R_n$ by the ideal $I_n$ generated by the quasisymmetric polynomials in $R_n$ that is indexed by ballot sequences. The Hilbert series of the quotient is given by

   $$ \begin{align*}\text{Hilb}_{R_n/I_n}(q) = \sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor{n/2}\rfloor} f^{(n-k,k)} q^k\,,\end{align*} $$
   where $f^{(n-k,k)}$ is the number of standard tableaux of shape $(n-k,k)$.

3. (3) There is a basis of the ideal generated by quasisymmetric polynomials that is indexed by sequences that break the ballot condition.

Let G be a finite group. Let $H, K$ be subgroups of G and $H \backslash G / K$ the double coset space. If Q is a probability on G which is constant on conjugacy classes ( $Q(s^{-1} t s) = Q(t)$ ), then the random walk driven by Q on G projects to a Markov chain on $H \backslash G /K$ . This allows analysis of the lumped chain using the representation theory of G. Examples include coagulation-fragmentation processes and natural Markov chains on contingency tables. Our main example projects the random transvections walk on $GL_n(q)$ onto a Markov chain on $S_n$ via the Bruhat decomposition. The chain on $S_n$ has a Mallows stationary distribution and interesting mixing time behavior. The projection illuminates the combinatorics of Gaussian elimination. Along the way, we give a representation of the sum of transvections in the Hecke algebra of double cosets, which describes the Markov chain as a mixture of Metropolis chains. Some extensions and examples of double coset Markov chains with G a compact group are discussed.

The superspace ring $\Omega _n$ is a rank n polynomial ring tensored with a rank n exterior algebra. Using an extension of the Vandermonde determinant to $\Omega _n$, the authors previously defined a family of doubly graded quotients ${\mathbb {W}}_{n,k}$ of $\Omega _n$, which carry an action of the symmetric group ${\mathfrak {S}}_n$ and satisfy a bigraded version of Poincaré Duality. In this paper, we examine the duality modules ${\mathbb {W}}_{n,k}$ in greater detail. We describe a monomial basis of ${\mathbb {W}}_{n,k}$ and give combinatorial formulas for its bigraded Hilbert and Frobenius series. These formulas involve new combinatorial objects called ordered set superpartitions. These are ordered set partitions $(B_1 \mid \cdots \mid B_k)$ of $\{1,\dots ,n\}$ in which the nonminimal elements of any block $B_i$ may be barred or unbarred.

Let n be a nonnegative integer. For each composition $\alpha $ of n, Berg, Bergeron, Saliola, Serrano and Zabrocki introduced a cyclic indecomposable $H_n(0)$ -module $\mathcal {V}_{\alpha }$ with a dual immaculate quasisymmetric function as the image of the quasisymmetric characteristic. In this paper, we study $\mathcal {V}_{\alpha }$ s from the homological viewpoint. To be precise, we construct a minimal projective presentation of $\mathcal {V}_{\alpha }$ and a minimal injective presentation of $\mathcal {V}_{\alpha }$ as well. Using them, we compute $\mathrm {Ext}^1_{H_n(0)}(\mathcal {V}_{\alpha }, \mathbf {F}_{\beta })$ and $\mathrm {Ext}^1_{H_n(0)}( \mathbf {F}_{\beta }, \mathcal {V}_{\alpha })$ , where $\mathbf {F}_{\beta }$ is the simple $H_n(0)$ -module attached to a composition $\beta $ of n. We also compute $\mathrm {Ext}_{H_n(0)}^i(\mathcal {V}_{\alpha },\mathcal {V}_{\beta })$ when $i=0,1$ and $\beta \le _l \alpha $ , where $\le _l$ represents the lexicographic order on compositions.

We study the compatibility of the action of the DAHA of type GL with two inverse systems of polynomial rings obtained from the standard Laurent polynomial representations. In both cases, the crucial analysis is that of the compatibility of the action of the Cherednik operators. Each case leads to a representation of a limit structure (the +/– stable limit DAHA) on a space of almost symmetric polynomials in infinitely many variables (the standard representation). As an application, we show that the defining representation of the double Dyck path algebra arises from the standard representation of the +stable limit DAHA.

Multi-compartment models described by systems of linear ordinary differential equations are considered. Catenary models are a particular class where the compartments are arranged in a chain. A unified methodology based on the Laplace transform is utilised to solve direct and inverse problems for multi-compartment models. Explicit formulas for the parameters in a catenary model are obtained in terms of the roots of elementary symmetric polynomials. A method to estimate parameters for a general multi-compartment model is also provided. Results of numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach.

We consider two natural gradings on the space of symmetric functions: by degree and by length. We introduce a differential operator T that leaves the components of this double grading invariant and exhibit a basis of bihomogeneous symmetric functions in which this operator is triangular. This allows us to compute the eigenvalues of T, which turn out to be nonnegative integers.

In 2010, Rhoades proved that promotion on rectangular standard Young tableaux, together with the associated fake-degree polynomial, provides an instance of the cyclic sieving phenomenon. We extend this result to m-tuples of skew standard Young tableaux of the same shape, for fixed m, subject to the condition that the mth power of the associated fake-degree polynomial evaluates to nonnegative integers at roots of unity. However, we are unable to specify an explicit group action. Put differently, we determine in which cases the mth tensor power of a skew character of the symmetric group carries a permutation representation of the cyclic group.

To do so, we use a method proposed by Amini and the first author, which amounts to establishing a bound on the number of border-strip tableaux of skew shape. Finally, we apply our results to the invariant theory of tensor powers of the adjoint representation of the general linear group. In particular, we prove the existence of a bijection between permutations and Stembridge’s alternating tableaux, which intertwines rotation and promotion.

Involution Schubert polynomials represent cohomology classes of K-orbit closures in the complete flag variety, where K is the orthogonal or symplectic group. We show they also represent $\mathsf {T}$ -equivariant cohomology classes of subvarieties defined by upper-left rank conditions in the spaces of symmetric or skew-symmetric matrices. This geometry implies that these polynomials are positive combinations of monomials in the variables $x_i + x_j$ , and we give explicit formulas of this kind as sums over new objects called involution pipe dreams. Our formulas are analogues of the Billey–Jockusch–Stanley formula for Schubert polynomials. In Knutson and Miller’s approach to matrix Schubert varieties, pipe dream formulas reflect Gröbner degenerations of the ideals of those varieties, and we conjecturally identify analogous degenerations in our setting.

We study the back stable Schubert calculus of the infinite flag variety. Our main results are:

• – a formula for back stable (double) Schubert classes expressing them in terms of a symmetric function part and a finite part;

• – a novel definition of double and triple Stanley symmetric functions;

• – a proof of the positivity of double Edelman–Greene coefficients generalizing the results of Edelman–Greene and Lascoux–Schützenberger;

• – the definition of a new class of bumpless pipedreams, giving new formulae for double Schubert polynomials, back stable double Schubert polynomials, and a new form of the Edelman–Greene insertion algorithm;

• – the construction of the Peterson subalgebra of the infinite nilHecke algebra, extending work of Peterson in the affine case;

• – equivariant Pieri rules for the homology of the infinite Grassmannian;

• – homology divided difference operators that create the equivariant homology Schubert classes of the infinite Grassmannian.