Combinatorial Hopf algebras, noncommutative Hall-Littlewood functions, and permutation tableaux

We introduce a new family of noncommutative analogues of the Hall-Littlewood symmetric functions. Our construction relies upon Tevlin's bases and simple q-deformations of the classical combinatorial Hopf algebras. We connect our new Hall-Littlewood functions to permutation tableaux, and also give an exact formula for the q-enumeration of permutation tableaux of a fixed shape. This gives an explicit formula for: the steady state probability of each state in the partially asymmetric exclusion process (PASEP); the polynomial enumerating permutations with a fixed set of weak excedances according to crossings; the polynomial enumerating permutations with a fixed set of descent bottoms according to occurrences of the generalized pattern 2-31.Comment: 37 pages, 4 figures, new references adde

The primitives and antipode in the Hopf algebra of symmetric functions in noncommuting variables

We identify a collection of primitive elements generating the Hopf algebra NCSym of symmetric functions in noncommuting variables and give a combinatorial formula for the antipode.Comment: 8 pages; footnote added; references added; further remarks adde