Witt Vectors, Semirings, and Total Positivity 275
Witt vectors, semirings, and total positivity James Borger∗ Abstract. We extend the big and p-typical Witt vector functors from commutative rings to commutative semirings. In the case of the big Witt vectors, this is a repackaging of some standard facts about monomial and Schur positivity in the combinatorics of symmetric functions. In the p-typical case, it uses positivity with respect to an apparently new basis of the p-typical symmetric functions. We also give explicit descriptions of the big Witt vectors of the natural numbers and of the nonnegative reals, the second of which is a restatement of Edrei’s theorem on totally positive power series. Finally we give some negative results on the relationship between truncated Witt vectors and k-Schur positivity, and we give ten open questions. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 13F35, 13K05; Secondary 16Y60, 05E05, 14P10. Keywords. Witt vector, semiring, symmetric function, total positivity, Schur positivity. Contents 1 Commutative algebra over N,thegeneraltheory 281 1.1 The category of N-modules ...................... 281 1.2 Submodulesandmonomorphisms . 281 1.3 Products,coproducts. 281 1.4 Internal equivalence relations, quotients, and epimorphisms . 282 1.5 Generatorsandrelations. 282 1.6 Hom and ⊗ ............................... 282 1.7 N-algebras................................ 283 1.8 Commutativityassumption . 283 1.9 A-modules and A-algebras....................... 283 1.10 HomA and ⊗A ............................. 284 1.11 Limits and colimits of A-modules and A-algebras . 284 1.12 Warning: kernelsandcokernels . 284 arXiv:1310.3013v2 [math.CO] 9 Sep 2015 1.13 Basechange,inducedandco-inducedmodules . 284 1.14 Limits and colimits of A-algebras................... 284 1.15 Basechangeforalgebras.
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