Combinatorial formula for Macdonald polynomials and generic Macdonald polynomials. (Q1413715)

In [\textit{A. Okounkov}, Transform. Groups 3, 181--207 (1998; Zbl 0941.17005)] the author introduced and studied a class of polynomials \(I_{\mu}(x_1,\dots,x_n; q,t,s)\), indexed with partitions \(\mu=(\mu_1,\dots,\mu_n)\), which are symmetric in \(x_1,\dots,x_n\) and with coefficients which are rational functions of \(q,t,s\). The characteristic property of \(I_{\mu}\) is that \(\deg I_{\mu}\leq|\mu|\) and \(I_{\mu}([1,\lambda_1],\dots, [1,\lambda_n])=0\) for any partition \(\lambda\) which does not contain \(\mu\), where \([i,j]=sq^{j+1}/t^{i+1}+t^{i+1}/sq^{j+1}\). These polynomials, called by the author interpolation Macdonald polynomials, have been intensively studied also by Knop, Olshanski and Sahi and have a number of deep properties and important applications. Most of their properties can be deduced from an explicit combinatorial formula in terms of reverse tableaux (i.e. the entries of the tableau weekly decrease along the rows and strictly decrease along the columns). One of the main results of the paper under review is a new proof of the combinatorial formula for \(I_{\mu}\) which does not use the properties of \(I_{\mu}\) except for their definition. The author introduces a class of polynomials \(I_U(x)\in{\mathbb Q}(u_1,\dots,u_d,q,t,s)[x_1,\dots,x_n]\) of degree \(d\) in \(x\). He calls them generic Macdonald polynomials because one can tune the parameters \(u_1,\ldots,u_d\) to make \(I_U\) as the expression in the combinatorial formula for \(I_{\mu}\). The author obtains a combinatorial formula for \(I_U(x)\) which generalizes the formula for \(I_{\mu}\) and is a typical form of a Bethe eigenfunction. The idea of the proof is to mimique the fact that when \(q=t\to 1\) and \(s\to\infty\) (and a change of the variables) \(I_{\mu}\) become the shifted Schur functions \(s^{\ast}_{\mu}\) and the \(s^{\ast}_{\mu}\) have a very nice representation-theoretic interpretation as the images under the Harish-Chandra homomorphism of a distinguished linear basis of the centre of the universal enveloping algebra \({\mathcal U}({\mathfrak g\mathfrak l}_n)\). (The images are known as quantum immanants.) Because of the absence of a simple structure to replace \({\mathcal U}({\mathfrak g\mathfrak l}_n)\) for general \(q\) and \(t\), the author stays entirely within the commutative world of polynomials in a similar way to what was done in the noncommutative world of \({\mathcal U}({\mathfrak g\mathfrak l}_n)\).