Weak dual equivalence for polynomials

Abstract

We use dual equivalence to give a short, combinatorial proof that Stanley symmetric functions are Schur positive. We introduce weak dual equivalence, and use it to give a short, combinatorial proof that Schubert polynomials are key positive. To demonstrate further the utility of this new tool, we use weak dual equivalence to prove a nonnegative Littlewood--Richardson rule for the key expansion of the product of a key polynomial and a Schur polynomial, and to introduce skew key polynomials that, when skewed by a partition, expand nonnegatively in the key basis.