Generators for the Algebra of Symmetric Functions

Abstract

The algebra of symmetric functions contains several interesting families of symmetric functions indexed by integer partitions or skew partitions. Given a sequence $\{u_n\}$ of symmetric functions taken from one of these families such that $u_n$ is homogeneous of degree $n$, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the sequence to form a system of algebraically independent generators for the algebra of symmetric functions.

18 pages, Comments are welcome