Affine Schubert classes, Schur positivity, and combinatorial Hopf algebras

Abstract

We suggest the point of view that the Schubert classes of the affine Grassmannian of a simple algebraic group should be considered as Schur-positive symmetric functions. In particular, we give a geometric explanation of the Schur positivity of k-Schur functions (at t = 1). We also put this in the context of the theory of combinatorial Hopf algebras.