Combinatorics of the K-theory of affine Grassmannians

Abstract

We introduce a family of tableaux that simultaneously generalizes the tableaux used to characterize Grothendieck polynomials and k-Schur functions. We prove that the polynomials drawn from these tableaux are the affine Grothendieck polynomials and k-K-Schur functions -- Schubert representatives for the K-theory of affine Grassmannians and their dual in the nil Hecke ring. We prove a number of combinatorial properties including Pieri rules.