Sums of binomial determinants, non-intersecting lattice paths and positivity of Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson classes

Abstract

We give a combinatorial interpretation of a certain positivity conjecture of Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson classes, as stated by P. Aluffi and the author in a previous paper. It translates into a positivity property for a sum of p by p determinants consisting of binomial coefficients, generalizing the classical Theorem of Lindstrom-Gessel-Viennot et al. which computes these determinants in terms of non-intersecting lattice paths. We prove this conjecture for p=2,3.