Skip to main content
4 of 7
added 187 characters in body
Marcel
  • 2.6k
  • 19
  • 35

Identity involving Schur polynomials, binomial coefficients and contents of partition

Let $C_{\lambda,\mu}$ be the coefficients defined as $$ s_\lambda\left(\frac{x_1}{1-x_1},...,\frac{x_N}{1-x_N}\right)=\sum_{\mu\supset \lambda}C_{\lambda\mu}s_\mu(x_1,...,x_N),$$ where $s$ are the Schur polynomials.

These coefficients have an explicit form in terms of a determinant of binomial coefficients, $$ C_{\lambda\mu}=\det\left[\binom{\mu_j-j}{\lambda_i-i}\right].$$

Given a partition $\lambda$, the set $\{j-i,1\le j\le \lambda_i,1\le i\le \ell(\lambda)\}$ is its content set. Let $t_\lambda$ be the product of all non-zero contents of $\lambda$.

I have met the following identity which I believe to be true: $$ \sum_{\mu\supset\lambda}C_{\lambda\mu}\frac{t_\mu^2}{s_\mu(1^N)}=\frac{t_\lambda^2}{s_{\lambda'}(1^N)},$$ where $\lambda'$ is the partition conjugated to $\lambda$.

Notice the infinite amount of cancellation: Since $s_\mu(1^N)=0$ for $N<\ell(\mu)$, the left hand side might in principle be singular for all integer $N$, but the right hand side is actually only singular for $N<\ell(\lambda')$.

Has anyone seen this identity before?

Edit. Following the comment by Richard Stanley that $C_{\lambda\mu}=\frac{|\lambda|!}{|\mu|!}f^{\mu/\lambda}\frac{t_{\mu/\lambda}}{t_\lambda}$, the identity can also be written as $$\sum_\mu\frac{f^{\mu/\lambda}}{|\mu|!}\frac{t_{\mu/\lambda}^3}{s_\mu(1^N)}=\frac{1}{|\lambda|!s_{\lambda'}(1^N)}.$$ (here $t_{\mu/\lambda}$ is the product of all contents of the skew partition $\mu/\lambda$ and $f^{\mu/\lambda}$ is the number of standard Young tableaux of that skew shape).

Marcel
  • 2.6k
  • 19
  • 35