$m$-Symmetric functions, non-symmetric Macdonald polynomials and positivity conjectures

We study the space, $R_m$, of $m$-symmetric functions consisting of polynomials that are symmetric in the variables $x_{m+1},x_{m+2},x_{m+3},\dots$ but have no special symmetry in the variables $x_1,\dots,x_m$. We obtain $m$-symmetric Macdonald polynomials by $t$-symmetrizing non-symmetric Macdonald polynomials, and show that they form a basis of $R_m$. We define $m$-symmetric Schur functions through a somewhat complicated process involving their dual basis, tableaux combinatorics, and the Hecke algebra generators, and then prove some of their most elementary properties. We conjecture that the $m$-symmetric Macdonald polynomials (suitably normalized and plethystically modified) expand positively in terms of $m$-symmetric Schur functions. We obtain relations on the $(q,t)$-Koska coefficients $K_{\Omega \Lambda}(q,t)$ in the $m$-symmetric world, and show in particular that the usual $(q,t)$-Koska coefficients are special cases of the $K_{\Omega \Lambda}(q,t)$'s. Finally, we show that when $m$ is large, the positivity conjecture, modulo a certain subspace, becomes a positivity conjecture on the expansion of non-symmetric Macdonald polynomials in terms of non-symmetric Hall-Littlewood polynomials.