We introduce affine Stanley symmetric functions for the special orthogonal groups, a class of symmetric functions that model the cohomology of the affine Grassmannian, continuing the work of Lam and Lam, Schilling, and Shimozono on the special linear and symplectic groups, respectively. For the odd orthogonal groups, a Hopf-algebra isomorphism is given, identifying (co)homology Schubert classes with symmetric functions. For the even orthogonal groups, we conjecture an approximate model of (co)homology via symmetric functions. In the process, we develop type B and type D non-commutative k-Schur functions as elements of the nilCoxeter algebra that model homology of the affine Grassmannian. Additionally, Pieri rules for multiplication by special Schubert classes in homology are given in both cases. Finally, we present a type-free interpretation of Pieri factors, used in the definition of noncommutative k-Schur functions or affine Stanley symmetric functions for any classical type.

(Dual-)promotion and (dual-)evacuation are bijections on SYT(\lambda) for any partition \lambda. Let c^r denote the rectangular partition (c,...,c) of height r, and let sc_k (k > 2) denote the staircase partition (k,k-1,...,1). B. Rhoades showed representation-theoretically that promotion on SYT(c^r) exhibits the cyclic sieving phenomenon (CSP). In this paper, we demonstrate a promotion- and evacuation-preserving embedding of SYT(sc_k) into SYT(k^{k+1}). This arose from an attempt to demonstrate the CSP of promotion action on SYT(sc_k).