$P$-partitions and $p$-positivity

Abstract: Using the combinatorics of $\alpha$-unimodal sets, we establish two new results in the theory of quasisymmetric functions. First, we obtain the expansion of the fundamental basis into quasisymmetric power sums. Secondly, we prove that generating functions of reverse $P$-partitions expand positively into quasisymmetric power sums. Consequently any nonnegative linear combination of such functions is $p$-positive whenever it is symmetric. As an application we derive positivity results for chromatic quasisymmetric functions, unicellular and vertical strip LLT polynomials, multivariate Tutte polynomials and the more general $B$-polynomials, matroid quasisymmetric functions, and certain Eulerian quasisymmetric functions, thus reproving and improving on numerous results in the literature.