$(q,t)$-chromatic symmetric functions

Abstract: By using level one polynomial representations of affine Hecke algebras of type $A$, we obtain a $(q,t)$-analogue of the chromatic symmetric functions of unit interval graphs which generalizes Syu Kato's formula for the chromatic symmetric functions of unit interval graphs. We show that at $q=1$, the $(q,t)$-chromatic symmetric functions essentially reduce to the chromatic quasisymmetric functions defined by Shareshian-Wachs, which in particular gives an algebraic proof of Kato's formula. We also give an explicit formula of the $(q,t)$-chromatic symmetric functions at $q=\infty$, which leads to a probability theoretic interpretation of $e$-expansion coefficients of chromatic quasisymmetric functions used in our proof of the Stanley-Stembridge conjecture. Moreover, we observe that the $(q,t)$-chromatic symmetric functions are multiplicative with respect to certain deformed multiplication on the ring of symmetric functions. We give a simple description of such multiplication in terms of the affine Hecke algebras of type $A$. We also obtain a recipe to produce $(q,t)$-chromatic symmetric functions from chromatic quasisymmetric functions, which actually makes sense for any oriented graphs.