Frobenius map for the centers of Hecke algebras

We introduce a commutative associative graded algebra structure on the direct sum Z of the centers of the Hecke algebras associated to the symmetric groups in n letters for all n. As a natural deformation of the classical construction of Frobenius, we establish an algebra isomorphism from the algebra Z to the ring of symmetric functions. This isomorphism provides an identification between several distinguished bases for the centers (introduced by Geck-Rouquier, Jones, Lascoux) and explicit bases of symmetric functions.