The enumeration of totally symmetric plane partitions (Q1891292)

The author has proven the conjectured formula for the number of totally symmetric plane partitions that fit inside an \(n\times n\times n\) box. A plane partition is a finite subset \(\pi\subset N^ 3\) that satisfies the condition that if \((i, j, k)\in \pi\) and \((i', j', k')\in N^ 3\) where \(i'\leq i\), \(j'\leq j\), \(k'\leq k\), then \((i', j', k')\in \pi\). Let \(B\) be a box, \(B= B(a, b, c)= \{(i, j, k)\in N^ 3\mid i\leq a,\;j\leq b,\;k\leq c\}\). The group \(S_ 3\) has a natural action on elements of \(N^ 3\), permuting the vertices. Given a subgroup \(G\subseteq S_ 3\) and a box \(B\), we can consider the generating function \(N_ G(B, q)= \sum q^{|\pi|}\), where the sum is over the \(G\)-invariant plane partitions contained in \(B\). In the late 1970s, Ian Macdonald conjectured that if \(G\) is a proper subset of \(S_ 3\), then this generating function can be expressed as a product over the orbits of \(B/G\): \[ N_ G(B, q)= \prod_{\eta\in B/G} {1- q^{|\eta|(ht(\eta)+ 1)} \over 1- q^{|\eta| ht(\eta)}}, \] where \(ht(\eta)= \sum_{(i, j, k)\in \eta} (i+ j+ k- 2)\). The proof for \(| G|= 1\) was published by Percy A. MacMahon in 1912; \(| G|= 2\) by George Andrews in 1978 (simultaneously proven by Ian Macdonald); \(| G|= 3\) by Mills, Robbins, and Rumsey in 1982. While this product formulation of the generating function does not hold for \(G= S_ 3\), it was observed by several people that the formula for the total number of totally symmetric plane partitions appeared to be correct: \[ N_{S_ 3}(B, 1)= \prod_{\eta\in B/S_ 3} {|\eta| (ht(\eta)+ 1)\over | \eta| ht(\eta)}. \] This is the formula that Stembridge has proven. The proof proceeds by translating the problem into one of counting configurations of non-intersecting paths. This is transformed into the calculation a certain Pfaffian, which is reduced to evaluating a certain determinant. The determinant is evaluated by exploiting a connection with the determinental expression for the number of cyclically symmetric plane partitions.