A statistical study of the Kostka-Foulkes polynomials (Q1312837)

The Kostka-Foulkes polynomial \(K_{\lambda,\mu} (q)\) is the generating polynomial (in \(q)\) for the set of tableaux of shape \(\lambda\) and evaluation \(\mu\). The paper deals with the conjecture that the series \(\sum_{n \geq 0} z^ n K_{\lambda a^ n,\mu a^ n} (q)\) for any natural number \(a\) has a sum which is a rational fraction in \(q\). (Here, \(\lambda a^ n\) denotes the union of the partitions \(\lambda\) and \(a^ n\), and \(a^ 0:=\varnothing\), \(a^ n:a^{n-1}(a)=(a,a,\dots,a)\), \(n=1,2,\dots)\) The main result is that this conjecture is proved to be true for \(a=1\) and \(\mu=(1,1,\dots,1)\), i.e. for tableaux of shape \(\lambda\) with standard evaluation (Young tableaux). Let in this case the Kostka-Foulkes polynomial for the standard tableaux of shape \(\lambda\) be denoted by \(K_ \lambda(q)\), the number of such tableaux by \(K_ \lambda(=K_ \lambda(1))\), and the generating polynomial of the charge over the set of tableaux that are extensions \(t1^ n\) of a given tableau \(t\) by \(K_{t1^ n} (q)\). Then by means of two statistics (``\textit{pre}'' and ``\textit{deu}'') introduced in this paper, it is shown that \(\sum_{n \geq 0} z^ nK_{\lambda 1^ n}\) is equal to \(P_ \lambda(1-z)/(1-z)^{| \lambda |+1}\), where \(P_ \lambda(x)\) is the generating function for the tableaux \(t\) of shape \(\lambda\) by their first letters \textit{pre} \(t\) and \(| \lambda |\) is the weight of \(\lambda\). Using this result the author proves an explicit formula for the sum of the series \(\sum_{n \geq 0}z^ nK_{t1^ n}(q)\) for a standard tableau \(t\) of shape \(\lambda\), which yields the main result mentioned above on the sum of \(\sum_{n \geq 0} z^ nK_{\lambda 1^ n}(q)\). As a corollary, \(\lim_{n \to \infty} K_{\lambda 1^ n}(q)\) is calculated. Moreover, a method for the calculation of \(P_ \lambda(x)\) is presented and it is verified that the joint distribution of the statistics \textit{pre} and \textit{deu} is symmetric.