Theory Of Symmetric Functions Research Articles

Factoring determinants and applications to number theory

Products of shifted characteristic polynomials, and ratios of such products, averaged over the classical compact groups are of great interest to number theorists as they model similar averages of [Formula: see text]-functions in families with the same symmetry type as the compact group. We use Toeplitz and Toeplitz plus Hankel operators and the identities of Borodin–Okounkov–Case–Geronimo, and Basor–Ehrhardt to prove that, in certain cases, these unitary averages factor as polynomials into averages over the symplectic group and the orthogonal group. Building on these identities we present new proofs of the exact formulas for these averages where the “swap” terms that are characteristic of the number theoretic averages occur from the Fredholm expansions of the determinants of the appropriate Hankel operator. This is the fourth different proof of the formula for the averages of ratios of products of shifted characteristic polynomials; the other proofs are based on supersymmetry; symmetric function theory, and orthogonal polynomial methods from random matrix theory.

Autocorrelations of characteristic polynomials for the Alternative Circular Unitary Ensemble

Abstract We find closed formulas for arbitrarily high mixed moments of characteristic polynomials of the Alternative Circular Unitary Ensemble, as well as closed formulas for the averages of ratios of characteristic polynomials in this ensemble. A comparison is made to analogous results for the Circular Unitary Ensemble. Both moments and ratios are studied via symmetric function theory and a general formula of Borodin-Olshanski-Strahov.

Spanning Configurations and Representation Stability

Let $V_1, V_2, V_3, \dots $ be a sequence of $\mathbb {Q}$-vector spaces where $V_n$ carries an action of $\mathfrak{S}_n$. Representation stability and multiplicity stability are two related notions of when the sequence $V_n$ has a limit. An important source of stability phenomena arises when $V_n$ is the $d^{th}$ homology group (for fixed $d$) of the configuration space of $n$ distinct points in some fixed topological space $X$. We replace these configuration spaces with moduli spaces of tuples $(W_1, \dots, W_n)$ of subspaces of a fixed complex vector space $\mathbb {C}^N$ such that $W_1 + \cdots + W_n = \mathbb {C}^N$. These include the varieties of spanning line configurations which are tied to the Delta Conjecture of symmetric function theory.

From Cauchy’s determinant formula to bosonic and fermionic immanant identities

Cauchy’s determinant formula (1841) involving det((1−uivj)−1) is a fundamental result in symmetric function theory. It has been extended in several directions, including a determinantal extension by Frobenius (1882) involving a sum of two geometric series in uivj. This theme also resurfaced in a matrix analysis setting in a paper by Horn (1969) – where the computations are attributed to Loewner – and in recent works by Belton et al. (2016) and Khare and Tao (2021). These formulas were recently unified and extended in Khare (2022) to arbitrary power series, with commuting/bosonic variables ui,vj.In this note we formulate analogous permanent identities, and in fact, explain how all of these results are a special case of a more general identity, for any character – in fact, any complex class function – of any finite group that acts on the bosonic variables ui and on the vj via signed permutations. (We explain why larger linear groups do not work, via a – perhaps novel – “symmetric function” characterization of signed permutation matrices that holds over any integral domain.) We then provide fermionic analogues of these formulas, as well as of the closely related Cauchy product identities.

The research and progress of the enumeration of lattice paths

The enumeration of lattice paths is an important counting model in enumerative combinatorics. Because it can provide powerful methods and technical support in the study of discrete structural objects in different disciplines, it has attracted much attention and is a hot research field. In this paper, we summarize two kinds of the lattice path counting models that are single lattice paths and family of nonintersecting lattice paths and their applications in terms of the change of dimensions, steps, constrained conditions, the positions of starting and end points, and so on. (1) The progress of classical lattice path such as Dyck lattice is introduced. (2) A method to study the enumeration of lattice paths problem by generating function is introduced. (3) Some methods of studying the enumeration of lattice paths problem by matrix are introduced. (4) The family of lattice paths problem and some counting methods are introduced. (5) Some applications of family of lattice paths in symmetric function theory are introduced, and a related open problem is proposed.

A Determinantal Identity for the Permanent of a Rank 2 Matrix

We prove an identity relating the permanent of a rank 2 matrix and the determinants of its Hadamard powers. When viewed in the right way, the resulting formula looks strikingly similar to an identity of Carlitz and Levine, suggesting the possibility that these are actually special cases of some more general identity (or class of identities) connecting permanents and determinants. The proof combines some basic facts from the theory of symmetric functions with an application of a famous theorem of Binet and Cauchy in linear algebra.

Quiver Hall–Littlewood functions and Kostka–Shoji polynomials

For any triple $(i,a,\mu)$ consisting of a vertex $i$ in a quiver $Q$, a positive integer $a$, and a dominant $GL_a$-weight $\mu$, we define a quiver current $H^{(i,a)}_\mu$ acting on the tensor power $\Lambda^Q$ of symmetric functions over the vertices of $Q$. These provide a quiver generalization of parabolic Garsia-Jing creation operators in the theory of Hall-Littlewood symmetric functions. For a triple $(\mathbf{i},\mathbf{a},\mu(\bullet))$ of sequences of such data, we define the quiver Hall-Littlewood function $H^{\mathbf{i},\mathbf{a}}_{\mu(\bullet)}$ as the result of acting on $1\in\Lambda^Q$ by the corresponding sequence of quiver currents. The quiver Kostka-Shoji polynomials are the expansion coefficients of $H^{\mathbf{i},\mathbf{a}}_{\mu(\bullet)}$ in the tensor Schur basis. These polynomials include the Kostka-Foulkes polynomials and parabolic Kostka polynomials (Jordan quiver) and the Kostka-Shoji polynomials (cyclic quiver) as special cases. We show that the quiver Kostka-Shoji polynomials are graded multiplicities in the equivariant Euler characteristic of a vector bundle on Lusztig's convolution diagram determined by the sequences $\mathbf{i},\mathbf{a}$. For certain compositions of currents we conjecture higher cohomology vanishing of the associated vector bundle on Lusztig's convolution diagram. For quivers with no branching we propose an explicit positive formula for the quiver Kostka-Shoji polynomials in terms of catabolizable multitableaux. We also relate our constructions to $K$-theoretic Hall algebras, by realizing the quiver Kostka-Shoji polynomials as natural structure constants and showing that the quiver currents provide a symmetric function lifting of the corresponding shuffle product. In the case of a cyclic quiver, we explain how the quiver currents arise in Saito's vertex representation of the quantum toroidal algebra of type $\mathfrak{sl}_r$.

Abacus proofs of Schur expansions of Macdonald polynomials

A famous problem in symmetric function theory is to find combinatorial formulas for Schur expansions of the Macdonald polynomials H ~ μ \tilde {H}_{\mu } . One such formula, valid for μ \mu satisfying μ 1 ≤ 3 \mu _1\leq 3 and μ 2 ≤ 2 \mu _2\leq 2 , involves Yamanouchi words weighted by Haglund’s statistics inv μ \operatorname {inv}_{\mu } and maj μ \operatorname {maj}_{\mu } . Previous proofs of this formula use the technical machinery of crystals and dual equivalence graphs. We give a new, elementary, and fully bijective proof of this formula based on the abacus model for antisymmetrized Macdonald polynomials. An extension to the Schur expansion of s ν H ~ μ s_{\nu }\tilde {H}_{\mu } is also provided.

Plethysms of Chromatic and Tutte Symmetric Functions

Plethysm is a fundamental operation in symmetric function theory, derived directly from its connection with representation theory. However, it does not admit a simple combinatorial interpretation, and finding coefficients of Schur function plethysms is a major open question.
 In this paper, we introduce a graph-theoretic interpretation for any plethysm based on the chromatic symmetric function. We use this interpretation to give simple proofs of new and previously known plethystic identities, as well as chromatic symmetric function identities.

Smooth entrywise positivity preservers, a Horn–Loewner master theorem, and symmetric function identities

A special case of a fundamental result of Loewner and Horn [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 136 (1969), pp. 269–286] says that given an integer n ⩾ 1 n \geqslant 1 , if the entrywise application of a smooth function f : ( 0 , ∞ ) → R f : (0,\infty ) \to \mathbb {R} preserves the set of n × n n \times n positive semidefinite matrices with positive entries, then f f and its first n − 1 n-1 derivatives are non-negative on ( 0 , ∞ ) (0,\infty ) . In a recent joint work with Belton–Guillot–Putinar [J. Eur. Math. Soc., in press], we proved a stronger version, and used it to strengthen the Schoenberg–Rudin characterization of dimension-free positivity preservers [Duke Math. J. 26 (1959), pp. 617–622; Duke Math. J. 9 (1942), pp. 96–108]. In recent works with Belton–Guillot–Putinar [Adv. Math. 298 (2016), pp. 325–368] and with Tao [Amer. J. Math. 143 (2021), pp. 1863-1929] we used local, real-analytic versions at the origin of the Horn–Loewner condition, and discovered unexpected connections between entrywise polynomials preserving positivity and Schur polynomials. In this paper, we unify these two stories via a Master Theorem (Theorem A) which (i) simultaneously unifies and extends all of the aforementioned variants; and (ii) proves the positivity of the first n n nonzero Taylor coefficients at individual points rather than on all of ( 0 , ∞ ) (0,\infty ) . A key step in the proof is a new determinantal / symmetric function calculation (Theorem B), which shows that Schur polynomials arise naturally from considering arbitrary entrywise maps that are sufficiently differentiable. Of independent interest may be the following application to symmetric function theory: we extend the Schur function expansion of Cauchy’s (1841) determinant (whose matrix entries are geometric series 1 / ( 1 − u j v k ) 1 / (1 - u_j v_k) ), as well as of a determinant of Frobenius [J. Reine Angew. Math. 93 (1882), pp. 53–68] (whose matrix entries are a sum of two geometric series), to arbitrary power series, and over all commutative rings.

Application of symmetric analytic functions to spectra of linear operators

The paper is devoted to extension of the theory of symmetric analytic functions on Banach sequence spaces to the spaces of nuclear and $p$-nuclear operators on the Hilbert space. We introduced algebras of symmetric polynomials and analytic functions on spaces of $p$-nuclear operators, described algebraic bases of such algebras and found some connection with the Fredholm determinant of a nuclear operator. In addition, we considered cases of compact and bounded normal operators on the Hilbert space and discussed structures of symmetric polynomials on corresponding spaces.

How to Draw a Correlation Function

We discuss connection between the XX0 Heisenberg spin chain and some aspects of enumerative combinatorics. The representation of the Bethe wave functions via the Schur functions allows to apply the theory of symmetric functions to the calculation of the correlation functions. We provide a combinatorial derivation of the dynamical auto-correlation functions and visualise them in terms of nests of self-avoiding lattice paths. Asymptotics of the auto-correlation functions are obtained in the double scaling limit provided that the evolution parameter is large.

Pattern avoidance in biwords

In this paper, we study pattern avoidance on the set of biwords with no repetitions in each block and prove that the number of those biwords avoiding π‾ is independent of the choice of π∈S3, which extends Knuth's classic result on permutations avoiding π∈S3. We present the proof in both bijective and inductive methods. As applications, we will give new combinatorial interpretations on Catalan, Riordan, and Motzkin numbers via pattern avoidance of biwords. Using the elementary theory of symmetric functions, we investigate the generating functions of biwords avoiding several specific patterns.

Symmetric function theory and unitary invariant ensembles

Representation theory and the theory of symmetric functions have played a central role in random matrix theory in the computation of quantities such as joint moments of traces and joint moments of characteristic polynomials of matrices drawn from the circular unitary ensemble and other circular ensembles related to the classical compact groups. The reason is that they enable the derivation of exact formulas, which then provide a route to calculating the large-matrix asymptotics of these quantities. We develop a parallel theory for the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE) of random matrices and other related unitary invariant matrix ensembles. This allows us to write down exact formulas in these cases for the joint moments of the traces and the joint moments of the characteristic polynomials in terms of appropriately defined symmetric functions. As an example of an application, for the joint moments of the traces, we derive explicit asymptotic formulas for the rate of convergence of the moments of polynomial functions of GUE matrices to those of a standard normal distribution when the matrix size tends to infinity.

Primitive elements of the Hopf algebras of tableaux

The character theory of symmetric groups, and the theory of symmetric functions, both make use of the combinatorics of Young tableaux, such as the Robinson–Schensted algorithm, Schützenberger’s “jeu de taquin”, and evacuation. In 1995 Poirier and the second author introduced some algebraic structures, different from the plactic monoid, which induce some products and coproducts of tableaux, with homomorphisms. Their starting point are the two dual Hopf algebras of permutations, introduced by the authors in 1995. In 2006 Aguiar and Sottile studied in more detail the Hopf algebra of permutations: among other things, they introduce a new basis, by Möbius inversion in the poset of weak order, that allows them to describe the primitive elements of the Hopf algebra of permutations. In the present Note, by a similar method, we determine the primitive elements of the Poirier–Reutenauer algebra of tableaux, using a partial order on tableaux defined by Taskin.

Product Matrix Processes With Symplectic and Orthogonal Invariance via Symmetric Functions

Abstract We apply symmetric function theory to study random processes formed by singular values of products of truncations of Haar distributed symplectic and orthogonal matrices. These product matrix processes are degenerations of Macdonald processes introduced by Borodin and Corwin. Through this connection, we obtain explicit formulae for the distribution of singular values of a deterministic matrix multiplied by a truncated Haar orthogonal or symplectic matrix under conditions where the latter factor acts as a rank $1$ perturbation. Consequently, we generalize the recent Kieburg–Kuijlaars–Stivigny formula for the joint singular value density of a product of truncated unitary matrices to symplectic and orthogonal symmetry classes. Specializing to products of two symplectic matrices with a rank $1$ perturbative factor, we show that the squared singular values form a Pfaffian point process.

Spanning subspace configurations

A spanning configuration in the complex vector space $${{\mathbb {C}}}^k$$ is a sequence $$(W_1, \dots , W_r)$$ of linear subspaces of $${{\mathbb {C}}}^k$$ such that $$W_1 + \cdots + W_r = {{\mathbb {C}}}^k$$ . We present the integral cohomology of the moduli space of spanning configurations in $${{\mathbb {C}}}^k$$ corresponding to a given sequence of subspace dimensions. This simultaneously generalizes the classical presentation of the cohomology of partial flag varieties and the more recent presentation of a variety of spanning line configurations defined by the author and Pawlowski. This latter variety of spanning line configurations plays the role of the flag variety for the Haglund–Remmel–Wilson Delta Conjecture of symmetric function theory.

Factorization length distribution for affine semigroups II: Asymptotic behavior for numerical semigroups with arbitrarily many generators

For numerical semigroups with a specified list of (not necessarily minimal) generators, we obtain explicit asymptotic expressions, and in some cases quasipolynomial/quasirational representations, for all major factorization length statistics. This involves a variety of tools that are not standard in the subject, such as algebraic combinatorics (Schur polynomials), probability theory (weak convergence of measures, characteristic functions), and harmonic analysis (Fourier transforms of distributions). We provide instructive examples which demonstrate the power and generality of our techniques. We also highlight unexpected consequences in the theory of homogeneous symmetric functions.

A study of symmetric functions via derived Hall algebra

We construct an infinite-dimensional Heisenberg algebra in the derived Hall algebra for the category of nilpotent representations of Jordan quiver. Using this Heisenberg algebra, we reconstruct the theory of symmetric functions, focusing on Hall-Littlewood symmetric functions and various operators acting on them.

Matrix models for classical groups and Toeplitz ± Hankel minors with applications to Chern–Simons theory and fermionic models

We study matrix integration over the classical Lie groups U(N), Sp(2N), SO(2N) and SO(2N + 1), using symmetric function theory and the equivalent formulation in terms of determinants and minors of Toeplitz ± Hankel matrices. We establish a number of factorizations and expansions for such integrals, also with insertions of irreducible characters. As a specific example, we compute both at finite and large N the partition functions, Wilson loops and Hopf links of Chern–Simons theory on S3 with the aforementioned symmetry groups. The identities found for the general models translate in this context to relations between observables of the theory. Finally, we use character expansions to evaluate averages in random matrix ensembles of Chern–Simons type, describing the spectra of solvable fermionic models with matrix degrees of freedom.