Some generalized Durfee square identities (Q798659)

The q-binomial coefficient \(x \brack n\) is defined for integers n and real numbers x by \(x \brack n=0\) for \(n<0\), \(x \brack 0=1\), and, for \(n>0\), \(x \brack n= \prod^{n-1}_{i=0}q^{x-i}-1/q^{n-i}-1.\) Using the Durfee rectangles of the Ferrers graphs of partitions, the author proves that, if \(a_ k\), \(b_ k\) are non-negative integers such that \(a_ 0b_ 0=0\), \(a_ kb_ k\neq 0\) for \(k>0\) and \((a_{k+1}-a_ k,b_{k+1}-b_ k)\) is (0,1), (1,0) or (1,1) for each \(k\geq 0\), then, for all integers \(m\geq a_ 0\) and \(n\geq b_ 0\), \[ \sum^{\infty}_{k=0}q^{a_ kb_ k}\left[ \begin{matrix} m-a_ k+b_{k+1}-1\\ m-a_ k\end{matrix} \right] \left[ \begin{matrix} n-b_ k+a_{k+1}-1 \\ n-b_ k\end{matrix} \right]= \left[ \begin{matrix} m+n\\ m\end{matrix} \right]. \] This generalizes results of \textit{E. A. Bender} [ibid. 1, 115-119 (1971; Zbl 0218.05005)] and \textit{R. A. Sulanke} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 31, 33-42 (1981; Zbl 0466.05002)].