Quasisymmetric harmonics of the exterior algebra

Abstract We study the ring of quasisymmetric polynomials in n anticommuting (fermionic) variables. Let $R_n$ denote the ring of polynomials in n anticommuting variables. The main results of this paper show the following interesting facts about quasisymmetric polynomials in anticommuting variables: (1) The quasisymmetric polynomials in $R_n$ form a commutative subalgebra of $R_n$ . (2) There is a basis of the quotient of $R_n$ by the ideal $I_n$ generated by the quasisymmetric polynomials in $R_n$ that is indexed by ballot sequences. The Hilbert series of the quotient is given by $$ \begin{align*}\text{Hilb}_{R_n/I_n}(q) = \sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor{n/2}\rfloor} f^{(n-k,k)} q^k\,,\end{align*} $$ where $f^{(n-k,k)}$ is the number of standard tableaux of shape $(n-k,k)$ . (3) There is a basis of the ideal generated by quasisymmetric polynomials that is indexed by sequences that break the ballot condition.