A Spin Analogue of Kerov Polynomials

Abstract

Kerov polynomials describe normalized irreducible characters of the symmetric groups in terms of the free cumulants associated with Young diagrams. We suggest well-suited counterparts of the Kerov polynomials in spin (or projective) representation settings. We show that spin analogues of irreducible characters are polynomials in even free cumulants associated with double diagrams of strict partitions. Moreover, we present a conjecture for the positivity of their coefficients.