Symmetric functions and Koszul complexes (Q1086352)

The aim of the note is to give a representation-theoretic justification of some well-known identities in the theory of symmetric functions. The authors' main idea is to use basic properties of Koszul complexes. This note was inspired by the question raised by R. Stanley about a representation-theoretic interpretation of another Littlewood formula: \[ \prod (1-x_ i)\prod (1-x_ ix_ j)=\sum_{I}(-1)^{(| I| +r(I))/2)}S_ I \] where \(S_ I\) is the Schur function corresponding to the partition I in infinitely many indeterminates \(x=(x_ 1,x_ 2,...)\); the summation ranges over all self-conjugate partitions I and r(I) is the rank of I, i.e. the length of the main diagonal of its diagram.