Rigidity for the Hopf algebra of quasi-symmetric functions

TL;DR

This paper explores the structural rigidity of the Hopf algebra of quasisymmetric functions, showing it is uniquely determined by certain bases and symmetries, with implications for algebra automorphisms.

Contribution

It establishes the rigidity of ${\rm QSym}$ as an algebra and coalgebra with respect to specific bases, and characterizes all nontrivial graded automorphisms induced by composition actions.

Findings

${\rm QSym}$ is rigid as an algebra with respect to the quasisymmetric Schur basis.

${\rm QSym}$ is rigid as a coalgebra with respect to the monomial and quasisymmetric Schur bases.

The only nontrivial automorphisms are induced by reversal, complement, and transpose actions on compositions.

Abstract

We investigate the rigidity for the Hopf algebra ${\rm QSym}$ of quasisymmetric functions with respect to the monomial, the fundamental and the quasisymmetric Schur basis, respectively. By establishing some combinatorial properties of the posets of compositions arising from the analogous Pieri rules for quasisymmetric functions, we show that ${\rm QSym}$ is rigid as an algebra with respect to the quasisymmetric Schur basis, and rigid as a coalgebra with respect to the monomial and the quasisymmetric Schur basis, respectively. The natural actions of reversal, complement and transpose of the labelling compositions lead to some nontrivial graded (co)algebra automorphisms of ${\rm QSym}$. We prove that the linear maps induced by the three actions are precisely the only nontrivial graded algebra automorphisms that take the fundamental basis into itself. Furthermore, the complement map on the labels gives the unique nontrivial graded coalgebra automorphism preserving the fundamental basis, while the reversal map on the labels gives the unique nontrivial graded algebra automorphism preserving the monomial basis. Therefore, ${\rm QSym}$ is rigid as a Hopf algebra with respect to the monomial and the quasisymmetric Schur basis.