Proof of a determinant evaluation conjectured by Bombieri, Hunt and van Poorten (Q1384585)

The authors join their respective techniques to evaluate the following determinant. Given nonnegative integers \(c \leq b\), the entry in row \(i\), column \(j\) is \[ \begin{aligned} \binom {x+j}{i}, &\qquad 0 \leq i \leq c,\;0 \leq j < b \;\text{ or } c \leq i < b,\;c \leq j < b,\\ \binom{2x+j} {i}, &\qquad 0 \leq i < b,\;b \leq j < b+c,\\ 2\binom{x+j} {i-b}, &\qquad b \leq i < b+c,\;0 \leq j < c,\\ \binom{x+j} {i-b}, &\qquad b \leq i < b+c,\;c \leq j < b,\\ 0, &\qquad \text{otherwise}. \end{aligned} \] The case \(x=0\) was a conjecture of \textit{E. Bombieri, D. C. Hunt}, and \textit{A. J. van der Poorten} [Exp. Math. 4, No. 2, 87-96 (1995; Zbl 0862.11029)].