Applications of minor summation formula III, Plücker relations, lattice paths and Pfaffian identities

The initial purpose of the present paper is to provide a combinatorial proof of the minor summation formula of Pfaffians in [Ishikawa, Wakayama, Minor summation formula of Pfaffians, Linear and Multilinear Algebra 39 (1995) 285-305] based on the lattice path method. The second aim is to study applications of the minor summation formula for obtaining several identities. Especially, a simple proof of Kawanaka's formula concerning a q-series identity involving the Schur functions [Kawanaka, A q-series identity involving Schur functions and related topics, Osaka J. Math. 36 (1999) 157-176] and of the identity in [Kawanaka, A q-Cauchy identity involving Schur functions and imprimitive complex reflection groups, Osaka J. Math. 38 (2001) 775-810] which is regarded as a determinant version of the previous one are given.     

GCD matrices,posets, and nonintersecting paths

We show that with any finite partially ordered set P (which need not be a lattice) one can associate a matrix whose determinant factors nicely. This was also noted by D.A. Smith, although his proof uses manipulations in the incidence algebra of P while ours is combinatorial, using nonintersecting paths in a digraph. As corollaries, we obtain new proofs for and generalizations of a number of results in the literature about GCD matrices and their relatives.     

The skew Schubert polynomials

We obtain a tableau definition of the skew Schubert polynomials named by Lascoux, which are defined as flagged double skew Schur functions. These polynomials are in fact Schubert polynomials in two sets of variables indexed by 321-avoiding permutations. From the divided difference definition of the skew Schubert polynomials, we construct a lattice path interpretation based on the Chen–Li–Louck pairing lemma. The lattice path explanation immediately leads to the determinantal definition and the tableau definition of the skew Schubert polynomials. For the case of a single variable set, the skew Schubert polynomials reduce to flagged skew Schur functions as studied by Wachs and by Billey, Jockusch, and Stanley. We also present a lattice path interpretation for the isobaric divided difference operators, and derive an expression of the flagged Schur function in terms of isobaric operators acting on a monomial. Moreover, we find lattice path interpretations for the Giambelli identity and the Lascoux–Pragacz identity for super-Schur functions. For the super-Lascoux–Pragacz identity, the lattice path construction is related to the code of the partition which determines the directions of the lines parallel to the y-axis in the lattice.     

Stanley's zrank conjecture on skew partitions

We present an affirmative answer to Stanley's zrank conjecture, namely, the zrank and the rank are equal for any skew partition. We show that certain classes of restricted Cauchy matrices are nonsingular and furthermore, the signs are determined by the number of zero entries. We also give a characterization of the rank in terms of the Giambelli-type matrices of the corresponding skew Schur functions. Our approach also applies to the factorial Cauchy matrices and the inverse binomial coefficient matrices.

     

Minor summation formula and a proof of Stanley’s open problem

In the open problem session of the FPSAC’03, R.P. Stanley gave an open problem about a certain sum of the Schur functions. The purpose of this paper is to give a proof of this open problem. The proof consists of three steps. At the first step we express the sum by a Pfaffian as an application of our minor summation formula (Ishikawa and Wakayama in Linear Multilinear Algebra 39:285–305, 1995). In the second step we prove a Pfaffian analogue of a Cauchy type identity which generalizes Sundquist’s Pfaffian identities (J. Algebr. Comb. 5:135–148, 1996). Then we give a proof of Stanley’s open problem in Sect. 4. At the end of this paper we present certain corollaries obtained from this identity involving the Big Schur functions and some polynomials arising from the Macdonald polynomials, which generalize Stanley’s open problem.      

An algebraic identity and the Jacobi–Trudi formula

The first Jacobi–Trudi identity expresses Schur polynomials as determinants of matrices, the entries of which are complete homogeneous polynomials. The Schur polynomials were defined by Cauchy in 1815 as the quotients of determinants constructed from certain partitions. The Schur polynomials have become very important because of their close relationship with the irreducible characters of the symmetric groups and the general linear groups, as well as due to their numerous applications in combinatorics. The Jacobi–Trudi identity was first formulated by Jacobi in 1841 and proved by Nicola Trudi in 1864. Since then, this identity and its numerous generalizations have been the focus of much attention due to the important role which they play in various areas of mathematics, including mathematical physics, representation theory, and algebraic geometry. Various proofs of the Jacobi–Trudi identity, which are based on different ideas (in particular, a natural combinatorial proof using Young tableaux), have been found. The paper contains a short simple proof of the first Jacobi–Trudi identity and discusses its relationship with other well-known polynomial identities.     

Transformations of Border Strips and Schur Function Determinants

We introduce the notion of the cutting strip of an outside decomposition of a skew shape, and show that cutting strips are in one-to-one correspondence with outside decompositions for a given skew shape. Outside decompositions are introduced by Hamel and Goulden and are used to give an identity for the skew Schur function that unifies the determinantal expressions for the skew Schur functions including the Jacobi-Trudi determinant, its dual, the Giambelli determinant and the rim ribbon determinant due to Lascoux and Pragacz. Using cutting strips, one obtains a formula for the number of outside decompositions of a given skew shape. Moreover, one can define the basic transformations which we call the twist transformation among cutting strips, and derive a transformation theorem for the determinantal formula of Hamel and Goulden. The special case of the transformation theorem for the Giambelli identity and the rim ribbon identity was obtained by Lascoux and Pragacz. Our transformation theorem also applies to the supersymmetric skew Schur function.     

Moments of the Hermitian Matrix Jacobi Process

In this paper, we compute the expectation of traces of powers of the Hermitian matrix Jacobi process for a large enough but fixed size. To proceed, we first derive the semi-group density of its eigenvalues process as a bilinear series of symmetric Jacobi polynomials. Next, we use the expansion of power sums in the Schur polynomial basis and the integral Cauchy–Binet formula in order to determine the partitions having nonzero contributions after integration. It turns out that these are hooks of bounded weight and the sought expectation results from the integral of a product of two Schur functions with respect to a generalized beta distribution. For special values of the parameters on which the matrix Jacobi process depends, the last integral reduces to the Cauchy determinant and we close the paper with the investigation of the asymptotic behavior of the resulting formula as the matrix size tends to infinity.     

The research and progress of the enumeration of lattice paths

The enumeration of lattice paths is an important counting model in enumerative combinatorics. Because it can provide powerful methods and technical support in the study of discrete structural objects in different disciplines, it has attracted much attention and is a hot research field. In this paper, we summarize two kinds of the lattice path counting models that are single lattice paths and family of nonintersecting lattice paths and their applications in terms of the change of dimensions, steps, constrained conditions, the positions of starting and end points, and so on. (1) The progress of classical lattice path such as Dyck lattice is introduced. (2) A method to study the enumeration of lattice paths problem by generating function is introduced. (3) Some methods of studying the enumeration of lattice paths problem by matrix are introduced. (4) The family of lattice paths problem and some counting methods are introduced. (5) Some applications of family of lattice paths in symmetric function theory are introduced, and a related open problem is proposed.     

A combinatorial interpretation of the inverse kostka matrix

The Kostka matrix K relates the. homogeneous and the Schur bases in the ring of symmetric functions where K_λ,μenumerates the number of column strict tableaux of shape λ and type μ. We make use of the Jacobi -Trudi identity to give a combinatorial interpretation for the inverse of the Kostka matrix in terms of certain types of signed rim hook tabloids. Using this interpretation, the matrix identity KK^-1=Iis given a purely combinatorial proof. The generalized Jacobi-Trudi identity itself is also shown to admit a combinatorial proof via these rim hook tabloids. A further application of our combinatorial interpretation is a simple rule for the evaluation of a specialization of skew Schur functions that arises in the computation of plethysms.     

Cylindric skew Schur functions

Cylindric skew Schur functions, which are a generalisation of skew Schur functions, arise naturally in the study of P-partitions. Also, recent work of A. Postnikov shows they have a strong connection with a problem of considerable current interest: that of finding a combinatorial proof of the non-negativity of the 3-point Gromov-Witten invariants. After explaining these motivations, we study cylindric skew Schur functions from the point of view of Schur-positivity. Using a result of I. Gessel and C. Krattenthaler, we generalise a formula of A. Bertram, I. Ciocan-Fontanine and W. Fulton, thus giving an expansion of an arbitrary cylindric skew Schur function in terms of skew Schur functions. While we show that no non-trivial cylindric skew Schur functions are Schur-positive, we conjecture that this can be reconciled using the new concept of cylindric Schur-positivity.     

Nonintersecting Paths, Pfaffians, and ?-Matroids

In this paper, we study -matroids induced by nonintersecting paths in a directed graph. The association between nonintersecting paths and -matroids is derived from Pfaffians. On the one hand, certain numbers ofk-tuples of nonintersecting paths may (often) be expressed as a Pfaffian, while, on the other hand, representability problems for -matroids may be studied in terms of Pfaffians. It is shown that -matroids induced by nonintersecting paths are representable over fields of any characteristic and that weightings defined on the edge set and with values in some linearly ordered abelian group give rise to valuated -matroids.     

Lakshmibai-Seshadri Paths and Non-Symmetric Cauchy Identity

We give a simple crystal theoretic interpretation of the Lascoux’s expansion of a non-symmetric Cauchy kernel \({\prod }_{i+ j \leq n + 1}(1-x_{i}y_{j})^{-1}\), which is given in terms of Demazure characters and atoms. We give a bijective proof of the non-symmetric Cauchy identity using the crystal of Lakshmibai-Seshadri paths, and extend it to the case of continuous crystals.     

A Pieri rule for skew shapes

The Pieri rule expresses the product of a Schur function and a single row Schur function in terms of Schur functions. We extend the classical Pieri rule by expressing the product of a skew Schur function and a single row Schur function in terms of skew Schur functions. Like the classical rule, our rule involves simple additions of boxes to the original skew shape. Our proof is purely combinatorial and extends the combinatorial proof of the classical case.     

Extended Bressoud-Wei and Koike skew Schur function identities

The Jacobi-Trudi identity expresses a skew Schur function as a determinant of complete symmetric functions. Bressoud and Wei extend this idea, introducing an integer parameter t?−1 and showing that signed sums of skew Schur functions of a certain shape are expressible once again as a determinant of complete symmetric functions. Koike provides a Jacobi-Trudi-style definition of universal rational characters of the general linear group and gives their expansion as a signed sum of products of Schur functions in two distinct sets of variables. Here we extend Bressoud and Wei's formula by including an additional parameter and extending the result to the case of all integer t. Then we introduce this parameter idea to the Koike formula, extending it in the same way. We prove our results algebraically using Laplace determinantal expansions.     

A combinatorial interpretation of the inverse kostka matrix

The Kostka matrix K relates the. homogeneous and the Schur bases in the ring of symmetric functions where K _λ,μenumerates the number of column strict tableaux of shape λ and type μ. We make use of the Jacobi -Trudi identity to give a combinatorial interpretation for the inverse of the Kostka matrix in terms of certain types of signed rim hook tabloids. Using this interpretation, the matrix identity KK ^?1=Iis given a purely combinatorial proof. The generalized Jacobi-Trudi identity itself is also shown to admit a combinatorial proof via these rim hook tabloids. A further application of our combinatorial interpretation is a simple rule for the evaluation of a specialization of skew Schur functions that arises in the computation of plethysms.     

关于双解析函数几个命题的一些注记

给出的双解析函数的高阶导数公式及其简单的证明.其次,建立了双解析函数的Cauchy不等式.最后,运用解析函数的奇点性质证明了双解析函数的拟Liouville定理.     

Symmetric functions,codes of partitions and the KP hierarchy

We consider an operator of Bernstein for symmetric functions and give an explicit formula for its action on an arbitrary Schur function. This formula is given in a remarkably simple form when written in terms of some notation based on the code of a partition. As an application, we give a new and very simple proof of a classical result for the KP hierarchy, which involves the Plücker relations for Schur function coefficients in a τ-function for the hierarchy. This proof is especially compact because we are able to restate the Plücker relations in a form that is symmetrical in terms of partition code notation.     

Skew quantum Murnaghan–Nakayama rule

We extend recent results of Assaf and McNamara on a skew Pieri rule and a skew Murnaghan–Nakayama rule to a more general identity, which gives an elegant expansion of the product of a skew Schur function with a quantum power sum function in terms of skew Schur functions. We give two proofs, one completely bijective in the spirit of Assaf–McNamara’s original proof, and one via Lam–Lauve–Sotille’s skew Littlewood–Richardson rule. We end with some conjectures for skew rules for Hall–Littlewood polynomials.     

Hypergeometric Solutions of Soliton Equations

We consider multivariable hypergeometric functions related to Schur functions and show that these hypergeometric functions are tau functions of the KP hierarchy and are simultaneously the ratios of Toda lattice tau functions evaluated at certain values of higher Toda lattice times. The variables of the hypergeometric functions are related to the higher times of those hierarchies via a Miwa change of variables. The discrete Toda lattice variable shifts the parameters of the hypergeometric functions. We construct the determinant representation and the integral representation of a special type for the KP tau functions. We write a system of linear differential and difference equations on these tau functions, which play the role of string equations.