Chromatic Symmetric Functions of Hypertrees

Abstract

The chromatic symmetric function $X_H$ of a hypergraph $H$ is the sum of all monomials corresponding to proper colorings of $H$. When $H$ is an ordinary graph, it is known that $X_H$ is positive in the fundamental quasisymmetric functions $F_S$, but this is not the case for general hypergraphs. We exhibit a class of hypergraphs $H$ — hypertrees with prime-sized edges — for which $X_H$ is $F$-positive, and give an explicit combinatorial interpretation for the $F$-coefficients of $X_H$.