A ratio of alternants formula for loop Schur functions

Abstract

Lam and Pylyavskyy introduced loop symmetric functions as a generalization of symmetric functions. They defined loop Schur functions as generating functions over semistandard tableaux with respect to a `colored weight,' and they proved a Jacobi--Trudi-style determinantal formula for these generating functions. We prove that loop Schur functions can be expressed as a ratio of `loop alternants,' extending the analogy with Schur functions. As an application, we give a new proof of the loop version of the Murnaghan--Nakayama rule.