On the Schur expansion of Hall-Littlewood and related polynomials via Yamanouchi words (Q521385)

Summary: This paper uses the theory of dual equivalence graphs to give explicit Schur expansions for several families of symmetric functions. We begin by giving a combinatorial definition of the modified Macdonald polynomials and modified Hall-Littlewood polynomials indexed by any diagram \(\delta \subset {\mathbb Z} \times {\mathbb Z}\), written as \(\widetilde H_{\delta}(X;q,t)\) and \(\widetilde H_{\delta}(X;0,t)\), respectively. We then give an explicit Schur expansion of \(\widetilde H_{\delta}(X;0,t)\) as a sum over a subset of the Yamanouchi words, as opposed to the expansion using the charge statistic given by \textit{A. Lascoux} and \textit{M.-P. Schüztenberger} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. A 286, 323--324 (1978; Zbl 0374.20010)]. We further define the symmetric function \(R_{\gamma,\delta}(X)\) as a refinement of \(\widetilde H_{\delta}(X;0,t)\) and similarly describe its Schur expansion. We then analyze \(R_{\gamma,\delta}(X)\) to determine the leading term of its Schur expansion. We also provide a conjecture towards the Schur expansion of \(\widetilde H_{\delta}(X;q,t)\). To gain these results, we use a construction from \textit{S. Assaf} [Dual equivalence graphs, ribbon tableaux and Macdonald polynomials. Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley (PhD Thesis) (2007), \url{http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~shassaf/PhinisheD.pdf}] to associate each Macdonald polynomial with a signed colored graph \(\mathcal{H}_\delta\). In the case where a subgraph of \(\mathcal{H}_\delta\) is a dual equivalence graph, we provide the Schur expansion of its associated symmetric function, yielding several corollaries.