A combinatorial formula for the Schur coefficients of chromatic symmetric functions

David G.L. Wang*, Monica M.Y. Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We provide a formula for every Schur coefficient in the chromatic symmetric function of a graph in terms of special rim hook tabloids. This formula is useful in confirming the non-Schur positivity of the chromatic symmetric function of a graph, especially when Stanley's stable partition method does not work. As applications, we completely characterize Schur positive complete tripartite graphs. We show that any squid graph obtained by attaching n pendent edges to a common vertex on the cycle Cm is not Schur positive if m≠2n−1, and that any pineapple graph obtained by attaching m pendent edges to a common vertex on the complete graph Kn is not Schur positive if n≤2m−2.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)621-630
Number of pages10
JournalDiscrete Applied Mathematics
Volume285
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Oct 2020

Keywords

  • Chromatic symmetric function
  • Schur positivity
  • Young tableau
  • e-positivity

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