A bijective proof of the q-Saalschütz theorem (Q1075331)

A combinatorial proof of a \(q\)-analogue of Saalschütz's summation theorem is given by determining an explicit bijection between sets of integer partitions. The proof relies on the fact that the generating function for partitions with upper bounds on the number of parts and the largest part is a q-analogue of the binomial coefficient. Saalschütz's theorem is a summation formula involving hypergeometric function \(3F_ 2\) and one of its form is stated as \[ \sum_{r\geq 0}\binom{m-\mu}{r}\binom{n+\mu}{\mu+r}\binom{\mu+\nu+r}{m+n} = \binom{\mu+\nu}{m}\binom{\nu}{n}. \] A direct combinatorical proof of \[ \sum_{k\geq u}q^{k(k-u)} {m-u \brack k-u} {n+u \brack k} {m+n+t-k\brack m+n} = {n+t \brack n} {m-u+t \brack m} \] is given, where \({i \brack j} = \frac{(1- q^ i)...(1-q^{i-j+1})}{(1-q^ j)...(1-q)}\).