Cyclic Sieving and Plethysm Coefficients

Abstract: A combinatorial expression for the coefficient of the Schur function $s_{\lambda}$ in the expansion of the plethysm $p_{n/d}^d \circ s_{\mu}$ is given for all $d$ dividing $n$ for the cases in which $n=2$ or $\lambda$ is rectangular. In these cases, the coefficient $\langle p_{n/d}^d \circ s_{\mu}, s_{\lambda} \rangle$ is shown to count, up to sign, the number of fixed points of an $\langle s_{\mu}^n, s_{\lambda} \rangle$-element set under the $d^{\text{th}}$ power of an order-$n$ cyclic action. If $n=2$, the action is the Sch\"utzenberger involution on semistandard Young tableaux (also known as evacuation), and, if $\lambda$ is rectangular, the action is a certain power of Sch\"utzenberger and Shimozono's jeu-de-taquin promotion. This work extends results of Stembridge and Rhoades linking fixed points of the Sch\"utzenberger actions to ribbon tableaux enumeration. The conclusion for the case $n=2$ is equivalent to the domino tableaux rule of Carr\'e and Leclerc for discriminating between the symmetric and antisymmetric parts of the square of a Schur function.