Some applications of Rees products of posets to equivariant gamma-positivity (Q2297558)

Let \(\mathbb{k}\) be a field and \(G\) a group which acts on a finite bounded poset \(P\) by order preserving bijections. A permutation representation \(\alpha_{P}(S)\) over \(\mathbb{k}\) is defined by \(G\) for every \(S\subseteq [n]\): it is induced by the action of \(G\) on the set of maximal chains of the rank selected subposet \(P_{S} = \{x\in P:\rho(x)\in S\}\cup \{\hat{0},\hat{1}\}\). There is also a virtual \(G\)-representation \[ \beta_{P}(S) = \sum_{T\subseteq S}(-1)^{|S-T|}\alpha_{P}(T). \] The author proves some formulas for \(\beta\) applied to the Rees product (this kind of product is explained in detail in the Section 2.1 of the article) of two posets: the first is \(P\) deprived from its maximum (or both its maximum and minimum elements) and the second is a poset whose Hasse diagram is a complete \(t\)-ary tree of height \(n\) (rooted at the minimum element). These formulas are used to prove others (due to Gessel) related to the generating function for the elementary symmetric functions in \(\mathfrak{x}=(x_{1},x_{2},\ldots)\). In particular, they make the \(\gamma\)-positivity of the formulas with respect to certain parameter explicit, which in turn is an instance of the so-called local equivariant Gal phenomenon. The proof of the author's formulas is straightforward but requires certain technical polynomial identities whose derivation is somewhat lengthy. Explicit combinatorial interpretations of the formulas for some Schur-positive symmetric functions in terms of standard Young (bi)tableaux (and their descents) are given, as well as some consequences to the equivariant \(\gamma\)-positivity of the symmetric group representation of the local face module of a certain triangulation of the simplex and the hyperoctahedral group representation on the cohomology of the projective toric variety associated to the Coxeter complex of type B.