# Finding Littlewood-Richardson coefficients without using identities

The Littlewood-Richardson coefficients $$C^{R}_{QP}$$ for some partitions $$R, Q, P$$ can usually be dealt with using identities like for example $$C^{R}_{QP} = 0 \quad \text{ if } \quad|R| \neq |Q| + |P|$$ or $$C^{R}_{Q\bullet} = \delta^{R}_{Q}.$$ However, how does one actually calculate something like $$C^{(2,1)}_{(1), (1,1)}?$$

Since $$|R| = |Q| + |P|$$ and $$P \neq \bullet$$ I cannot use the above identities and I struggle to find any method of actually calculating the coefficients.

• Your coefficient has both $P$ and $Q$ with either one row or one column. If either holds then the Littlewood–Richardson Rule can be replaced with the easier Pieri's Rule. (Sometimes called Young's rule for the single part case, i.e. $C^R_{P (q)}$.) I often see the LR rule applied in the literature when this easier result suffices. Nov 19 '19 at 18:00

Use linear algebra. Compute Schur polynomials (using the Jacobi-Trudi identity, say), and then use the fact that the coefficient of $$s_\nu$$ in the product $$s_\lambda s_\mu$$ is a Littlewood-Richardson coefficient.
However, note that it has been proved that computing Littewood-Richardson coefficients is #$$P$$-complete, meaning that there is no super-efficient algorithm for computing these (that is, no nice closed formula).