Combinatorial Properties of the Hilbert Series of Macdonald Polynomials

The original Macdonald polynomials P_μ form a basis for the vector space of symmetric functions which specializes to several of the common bases such as the monomial, Schur, and elementary bases. There are a number of different types of Macdonald polynomials obtained from the original P_μ through a combination of algebraic and plethystic transformations one of which is the modified Macdonald polynomial H̃_μ. In this dissertation, we study a certain specialization F̃_μ(q,t) which is the coefficient of x₁x₂…x_N in H̃_μ and also the Hilbert series of the Garsia-Haiman module M_μ. Haglund found a combinatorial formula expressing F̃_μ as a sum of n! objects weighted by two statistics. Using this formula we prove a q,t-analogue of the hook-length formula for hook shapes. We establish several new combinatorial operations on the fillings which generate F̃_μ. These operations are used to prove a series of recursions and divisibility properties for F̃_μ.