Shifted tableaux, Schur q-functions, and a conjecture of R. Stanley (Q1112824)

We present an analog of the Robinson-Schensted correspondence that applies to shifted Young tableaux and is considerably simpler than the one proposed in [\textit{B. E. Sagan}, J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 27, 10-18 (1979; Zbl 0428.05005)]. In addition, this algorithm enjoys many of the important properties of the original Robinson-Schensted map including an interpretation of row lengths in terms of k-increasing sequences, a jeu de taquin, and a generalization to tableaux with repeated entries analogous to \textit{D. E. Knuth}'s construction [Pac. J. Math. 34, 709-727 (1970; Zbl 0199.319)]. The fact that the Knuth relations hold for our algorithm yields a simple proof of a conjecture of Stanley.