Permutations with Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial . With an appendix by Sara Billey and Jonathan Weed.
Positivity of Schur function expansions of Thom polynomials
Combining the approach to Thom polynomials via classifying spaces of singularities with the Fulton-Lazarsfeld theory of cone classes and positive polynomials for ample vector bundles, we show that the coefficients of the Schur function expansions of the Thom polynomials of stable singularities are nonnegative with positive sum.
Positivity of Thom polynomials II: the Lagrange singularities
We study Thom polynomials associated with Lagrange singularities. We expand them in the basis of Q̃-functions. This basis plays a key role in the Schubert calculus of isotropic Grassmannians. We prove that the Q̃-function expansions of the Thom polynomials of Lagrange singularities always have nonnegative coefficients. This is an analog of a result on the Thom polynomials of mapping singularities and Schur S-functions, established formerly by the last two authors.