Note on enumeration of partitions contained in a given shape (Q1044552)

Let \(M=(M_1\leq M_2\leq \cdots \leq M_s)\) and \(N=(N_1\leq N_2\leq \cdots \leq N_s)\) be two fixed partition such that \(M_i\leq N_i\) for all \(i\). \textit{B. R. Handa} and \textit{S. G. Mohanty} [SIAM J. Math. Anal. 11, 1027--1035 (1980; Zbl 0448.05002)] proved the following determinantal formula to enumerate by area partitions lying between \(M\) and \(N\): \[ \sum_{\lambda: M\subseteq \lambda \subseteq N} q^{|\lambda|}= \det\Biggl({N_i-M_j+1 \brack j-i+1}_q q^{(j-i)(j-i+1)/2+(j-i+1)M_j}\Biggl)_{1\leq i,j\leq s} . \] Gessel and Viennot developed the state-of-the-art technique to prove this (and similar) identities by counting signed, weighted \(s\)-tuples of lattice paths using sign-reversing involutions. The paper under review establishes families of pairs of inverse matrices using sign-reversing involutions. The inverse matrices imply this result almost immediately, after using the classical adjoint formula for the inverse matrix.