An analogue of Schur functions for the plane partitions

Abstract: An attempt is described to extend the notion of Schur functions from Young diagrams to plane partitions. The suggestion is to use the recursion in the partition size, which is easily generalized and deformed. This opens a possibility to obtain Macdonald polynomials by a change of recursion coefficients and taking appropriate limit from three to two dimensions -- though details still remain to be worked out. Another perspective is opened by the observation of a rich non-abelian structure, extending that of commuting cut-and-join operators, for which the discovered 3-Schurs are the common eigenfunctions.