Kostka polynomials and energy functions in solvable lattice models (Q1126916)

For a partition \(\lambda\) the Kostka number \(K_{\lambda,\mu}\) gives the weight multiplicity of the irreducible \(s\ell_n\)-module \(V(\lambda)\) of weight \(\mu\). It is known from the combinatorics of \(s\ell_n\) representation theory that this Kostka number \(K_{\lambda,\mu}\) is also the transition coefficient between the Schur function \(s_\lambda (x)\) and the symmetric function \(m_\mu (x)\). The Kostka polynomial \(K_{\lambda,\mu}(q)\) is the transition coefficient between the Schur function \(s_\lambda (x)\) and the Hall-Littlewood symmetric function \(P_\mu(x,q)\). In 1978 Lascoux and Schützenberger proved the remarkable fact that \(K_{\lambda,\mu}(q)\) is a polynomial in \(q\) with non-negative integer coefficients. They proved this by showing that \(K_{\lambda,\mu} (q)=\sum q^{c(T)}\), where \(T\) varies over all semi-standard tableaux of shape \(\lambda\) and weight \(\mu\) and \(c(T)\) is an integer valued function, called the ``charge'' of the tableau \(T\) which is still a mysterious object in combinatorics. In this paper, the authors use the crystal base theory for the associated affine Lie algebra \(\widehat{s\ell}(n)\) and the corresponding solvable lattice models to give another expression for the Kostka polynomial \(K_{\lambda,\mu}(q)\) in terms of the sum of certain \(q\)-powers where the exponents are given in terms of the energy function. This reproves Lascoux and Schützenberger's result and establishes the relations between their ``charge'' and the energy function. As an application, the authors prove a conjecture of A. N. Kirillov on the expression of the branching coefficient of \(\widehat{s\ell}(n)/s\ell_n\) as a limit of Kostka polynomials.