Raising operators and the Littlewood-Richardson polynomials

Abstract: We use Young's raising operators to derive a Pieri rule for the ring generated by the indeterminates $h_{r,s}$ given in Macdonald's 9th Variation of the Schur functions. Under an appropriate specialisation of $h_{r,s}$, we derive the Pieri rule for the ring $\La(a)$ of double symmetric functions, which has a basis consisting of the double Schur functions. Together with a suitable interpretation of the Jacobi--Trudi identity, our Pieri rule allows us to obtain a new proof of a rule to calculate the Littlewood--Richardson polynomials, which gives a multiplication rule for the double Schur functions.