Inequalities for single-hook immanants (Q1103021)

Let A be an \(n\times n\) complex matrix. If G is a subgroup of the full symmetric group \(S_ n\) and \(\chi\) a character on G, the generalized matrix function is \(d^ G_{\chi}=\sum_{\sigma \in G}\chi (\sigma)\prod^{n}_{i=1}a_{i\sigma (i)}.\) The authors concentrate on situations in which \(G=S_ n\) and \(\chi\) is irreducible. Then \(d^ G_{\chi}\), abbreviated \(d_{\chi}\), is called an immanant; \(d_{\chi}=d_{\chi}/\chi (id)\) is called a normalized immanant. The authors consider immanants that correspond to the nonincreasing partitions \(p=(p_ 1,p_ 2,...,p_ r)\) of n, and in particular to the \(d_{\chi}\) (and \(\bar d{}_{\chi})\) that correspond to partitions (k,1,...,1), \(k=1,...,n\). It has been conjectured that (det A\(=)\bar d{}_ 1(A)\leq \bar d_ 2(A)\leq...\leq \bar d_{n-1}(A)\leq \bar d_ n(A)(=\) per A) whenever A is positive semidefinite Hermitian. The authors show that for such A, \(\bar d{}_ 2(A)\leq \bar d_ 3(A)\leq per A\) and that \(d_ 2(A)\leq d_{n-1}(A)\). They show that if \(\chi\) is the character corresponding to the special partition (2,2,1,...,1) on n, then \(d_{\chi}(A)\leq \chi (id)\) per A.