In mathematics, Schur polynomials, named after Issai Schur, are certain symmetric polynomials in n variables, indexed by partitions, that generalize the elementary symmetric polynomials and the complete homogeneous symmetric polynomials. In representation theory they are the characters of polynomial irreducible representations of the general linear groups. The Schur polynomials form a linear basis for the space of all symmetric polynomials. Any product of Schur polynomials can be written as a linear combination of Schur polynomials with non-negative integral coefficients; the values of these coefficients is given combinatorially by the Littlewood–Richardson rule. More generally, skew Schur polynomials are associated with pairs of partitions and have similar properties to Schur polynomials.

Schur polynomials are indexed by integer partitions. Given a partition λ = (λ₁, λ₂, ...,λ_n), where λ₁ ≥ λ₂ ≥ ... ≥ λ_n, and each λ_j is a non-negative integer, the functions

$${\displaystyle a_{(\lambda _{1}+n-1,\lambda _{2}+n-2,\dots ,\lambda _{n})}(x_{1},x_{2},\dots ,x_{n})=\det \left[{\begin{matrix}x_{1}^{\lambda _{1}+n-1}&x_{2}^{\lambda _{1}+n-1}&\dots &x_{n}^{\lambda _{1}+n-1}\\x_{1}^{\lambda _{2}+n-2}&x_{2}^{\lambda _{2}+n-2}&\dots &x_{n}^{\lambda _{2}+n-2}\\\vdots &\vdots &\ddots &\vdots \\x_{1}^{\lambda _{n}}&x_{2}^{\lambda _{n}}&\dots &x_{n}^{\lambda _{n}}\end{matrix}}\right]}$$

are alternating polynomials by properties of the determinant. A polynomial is alternating if it changes sign under any transposition of the variables.

Since they are alternating, they are all divisible by the Vandermonde determinant $${\displaystyle a_{(n-1,n-2,\dots ,0)}(x_{1},x_{2},\dots ,x_{n})=\det \left[{\begin{matrix}x_{1}^{n-1}&x_{2}^{n-1}&\dots &x_{n}^{n-1}\\x_{1}^{n-2}&x_{2}^{n-2}&\dots &x_{n}^{n-2}\\\vdots &\vdots &\ddots &\vdots \\1&1&\dots &1\end{matrix}}\right]=\prod _{1\leq j<k\leq n}(x_{j}-x_{k}).}$$ The Schur polynomials are defined as the ratio

$${\displaystyle s_{\lambda }(x_{1},x_{2},\dots ,x_{n})={\frac {a_{(\lambda _{1}+n-1,\lambda _{2}+n-2,\dots ,\lambda _{n}+0)}(x_{1},x_{2},\dots ,x_{n})}{a_{(n-1,n-2,\dots ,0)}(x_{1},x_{2},\dots ,x_{n})}}.}$$

This is known as the bialternant formula of Jacobi. It is a special case of the Weyl character formula.

This is a symmetric function because the numerator and denominator are both alternating, and a polynomial since all alternating polynomials are divisible by the Vandermonde determinant.