Necessary conditions for Schur-maximality (Q1753121)

Summary: McNamara and Pylyavskyy conjectured precisely which connected skew shapes are maximal in the Schur-positivity order, which says that \(B\leq _s A\) if \(s_A-s_B\) is Schur-positive. Towards this, \textit{P. R. W. McNamara} and the second author [Eur. J. Comb. 33, No. 6, 1190--1206 (2012; Zbl 1242.05271)] proved that it suffices to study equitable ribbons, namely ribbons whose row lengths are all of length \(a\) or \((a+1)\) for \(a\geq 2\). In this paper we confirm the conjecture of McNamara and Pylyavskyy in all cases where the comparable equitable ribbons form a chain. We also confirm a conjecture of McNamara and van Willigenburg regarding which equitable ribbons in general are minimal. Additionally, we establish two sufficient conditions for the difference of two ribbons to be Schur-positive, which manifest as diagrammatic operations on ribbons. We also deduce two necessary conditions for the difference of two equitable ribbons to be Schur-positive that rely on rows of length \(a\) being at the end, or on rows of length \((a+1)\) being evenly distributed.