Cyclic quasi-symmetric functions

The ring of cyclic quasi-symmetric functions and its non-Escher subring are introduced in this paper. A natural basis consists of fundamental cyclic quasi-symmetric functions; for the non-Escher subring they arise as toric P-partition enumerators, for toric posets P with a total cyclic order. The associated structure constants are determined by cyclic shuffles of permutations. We then prove the following positivity phenomenon: for every non-hook shape λ, the coefficients in the expansion of the Schur function s_λ in terms of fundamental cyclic quasi-symmetric functions are nonnegative. The proof relies on the existence of a cyclic descent map on the standard Young tableaux (SYT) of shape λ. The theory has applications to the enumeration of cyclic shuffles and SYT by cyclic descents.