Invariants and coinvariants of the symmetric group in noncommuting variables

Abstract

We introduce a natural Hopf algebra structure on the space of noncommutative symmetric functions. The bases for this algebra are indexed by set partitions. We show that there exists a natural inclusion of the Hopf algebra of noncommutative symmetric functions in this larger space. We also consider this algebra as a subspace of noncommutative polynomials and use it to understand the structure of the spaces of harmonics and coinvariants with respect to this collection of noncommutative polynomials and conclude two analogues of Chevalley's theorem in the noncommutative setting. ©Canadian Mathematical Society 2008.