• If w_0 is the permutation of longest length in S_n then \mathfrak{S}_{w_0} = x_1^{n-1}x_2^{n-2} \cdots x_{n-1}^1 • \partial_i \mathfrak{S}_w = \mathfrak{S}_{ws_i} if w(i) > w(i+1), where s_i is the transposition (i, i+1) and where \partial_i is the divided difference operator taking P to (P - s_iP)/(x_i - x_{i+1}). Schubert polynomials can be calculated recursively from these two properties. In particular, this implies that \mathfrak{S}_w = \partial_{w^{-1}w_0} x_1^{n-1}x_2^{n-2} \cdots x_{n-1}^1. Other properties are • \mathfrak{S}_{id} = 1 • If s_i is the transposition (i,i+1), then \mathfrak{S}_{s_i} = x_1 + \cdots + x_i . • If w(i) for all i \neq r, then \mathfrak{S}_w is the Schur polynomial s_\lambda(x_1,\ldots,x_r) where \lambda is the partition (w(r) - r, \ldots, w(2) - 2, w(1) - 1). In particular all Schur polynomials (of a finite number of variables) are Schubert polynomials. • Schubert polynomials have positive coefficients. A conjectural rule for their coefficients was put forth by
Richard P. Stanley, and proven in two papers, one by
Sergey Fomin and Stanley and one by
Sara Billey, William Jockusch, and Stanley. • The Schubert polynomials can be seen as a generating function over certain combinatorial objects called
pipe dreams or
rc-graphs. These are in bijection with
reduced Kogan faces, (introduced in the PhD thesis of Mikhail Kogan) which are special faces of the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope. • Schubert polynomials also can be written as a weighted sum of objects called
bumpless pipe dreams. As an example :\mathfrak{S}_{51423}(x) = x_1 x_3^2 x_4 x_2^2+x_1^2 x_3 x_4 x_2^2+x_1^2 x_3^2 x_4 x_2. ==Multiplicative structure constants==