Polynomial relations among characters coming from quantum affine algebras (Q1574677)

The Jacobi-Trudi identity yields the formula \[ Q_m(\ell)^2= Q_{m-1}(\ell) Q_{m+1}(\ell)+ Q_m(\ell-1) Q_m(\ell+1), \] where \(Q_m(\ell)\) is the character of \({\mathfrak {gl}}_n\) corresponding to the \(\ell\times m\) rectangular Young diagram. This identity has a natural generalization to types \(B\), \(C\) and \(D\) which is explained in \S 2 of the paper. Kirillov and Reshetikhin defined a family of combinatorial characters, \(W_m(\ell)\), analogous to the \(Q_m(\ell)\) above; these are given in terms of combinations of certain irreducible highest weight modules for the quantized enveloping algebra \(U_q({\mathfrak g})\) with prescribed multiplicities. These characters \(W_m(\ell)\) are expected to be characters of certain modules for the quantized enveloping algebra of the corresponding affine Lie algebra, \(U_q (\widehat{g})\). Kirillov and Reshetikhin proved that the characters \(W_m(\ell)\) are the unique solution to the analogues of the identities mentioned above, subject to some initial data. The main result of this paper, Theorem 2, shows that this initial data is unnecessary, once one assumes that \(Q_m(\ell)\) is the character of a \(U_q({\mathfrak g})\)-module with highest weight \(m\omega_l\).