Crystals and Schur $P$-positive expansions

Abstract

We give a new characterization of Littlewood-Richardson-Stembridge tableaux for Schur $P$-functions by using the theory of $\mf{q}(n)$-crystals. We also give alternate proofs of the Schur $P$-expansion of a skew Schur function due to Ardila and Serrano, and the Schur expansion of a Schur $P$-function due to Stembridge using the associated crystal structures.