Algebraic Combinatorics Seminar - Nick Olson-Harris

Title: When are two Schur functions the same?

Abstract: 

A pair of skew shapes are said to be (skew) equivalent if they admit the same number of semistandard tableaux of any weight; i.e. if their associated skew Schur functions are equal. A result of Billera, Thomas, and Van Willigenburg gives a complete combinatorial characterization of equivalences between ribbon shapes (those with no 2×2 square) but the general case is more complicated. I will give a brief survey of existing results in the area and then discuss some recent work of my own.