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Concept
Ring of symmetric functions
Summary
In algebra and in particular in algebraic combinatorics, the ring of symmetric functions is a specific limit of the rings of symmetric polynomials in n indeterminates, as n goes to infinity. This ring serves as universal structure in which relations between symmetric polynomials can be expressed in a way independent of the number n of indeterminates (but its elements are neither polynomials nor functions). Among other things, this ring plays an important role in the representation theory of the symmetric group.
The ring of symmetric functions can be given a coproduct and a bilinear form making it into a positive selfadjoint graded Hopf algebra that is both commutative and cocommutative.
Symmetric polynomial
The study of symmetric functions is based on that of symmetric polynomials. In a polynomial ring in some finite set of indeterminates, a polynomial is called symmetric if it stays the same whenever the indeterminates are permuted in any way. More formally, there is an action by ring automorphisms of the symmetric group Sn on the polynomial ring in n indeterminates, where a permutation acts on a polynomial by simultaneously substituting each of the indeterminates for another according to the permutation used. The invariants for this action form the subring of symmetric polynomials. If the indeterminates are X1, ..., Xn, then examples of such symmetric polynomials are
and
A somewhat more complicated example is
X13X2X3 + X1X23X3 + X1X2X33 + X13X2X4 + X1X23X4 + X1X2X43 + ...
where the summation goes on to include all products of the third power of some variable and two other variables. There are many specific kinds of symmetric polynomials, such as elementary symmetric polynomials, power sum symmetric polynomials, monomial symmetric polynomials, complete homogeneous symmetric polynomials, and Schur polynomials.
Most relations between symmetric polynomials do not depend on the number n of indeterminates, other than that some polynomials in the relation might require n to be large enough in order to be defined.
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Complete homogeneous symmetric polynomial
In mathematics, specifically in algebraic combinatorics and commutative algebra, the complete homogeneous symmetric polynomials are a specific kind of symmetric polynomials. Every symmetric polynomial can be expressed as a polynomial expression in complete homogeneous symmetric polynomials. The complete homogeneous symmetric polynomial of degree k in n variables X1, ..., Xn, written hk for k = 0, 1, 2, ..., is the sum of all monomials of total degree k in the variables.
Symmetric polynomial
In mathematics, a symmetric polynomial is a polynomial P(X1, X2, ..., Xn) in n variables, such that if any of the variables are interchanged, one obtains the same polynomial. Formally, P is a symmetric polynomial if for any permutation σ of the subscripts 1, 2, ..., n one has P(Xσ(1), Xσ(2), ..., Xσ(n)) = P(X1, X2, ..., Xn). Symmetric polynomials arise naturally in the study of the relation between the roots of a polynomial in one variable and its coefficients, since the coefficients can be given by polynomial expressions in the roots, and all roots play a similar role in this setting.
Stanley symmetric function
In mathematics and especially in algebraic combinatorics, the Stanley symmetric functions are a family of symmetric functions introduced by in his study of the symmetric group of permutations. Formally, the Stanley symmetric function Fw(x1, x2, ...) indexed by a permutation w is defined as a sum of certain fundamental quasisymmetric functions. Each summand corresponds to a reduced decomposition of w, that is, to a way of writing w as a product of a minimal possible number of adjacent transpositions.