Schur functions are a special class of symmetric functions that arise in the study of representation theory and algebraic combinatorics. They are indexed by partitions, which are ways of writing a number as a sum of positive integers. Schur functions can be expressed in terms of Young tableaux, which are combinatorial objects that help visualize the structure of these functions. These functions play a crucial role in various mathematical areas, including symmetric polynomials and character theory. They can be used to describe the characters of general linear groups and have connections to geometry through Schubert calculus. Schur functions also serve as a bridge between combinatorial and algebraic methods in mathematics.