Young multitableaux and higher dimensional determinants (Q1924001)

A standard Young multitableau of width \(q>0\) bounded by \(m=(m(1),\dots,m(q))\) is a \(q\)-tuple of standard Young tableaux of the same shape such that the entries of the \(i\)th tableau are bounded by \(m(i)\). Let \(\text{stab}(q,m,p,a,V)\) be the number of the standard multitableaux \(T\) of width \(q\), with \(V\) boxes, bounded by \(m\) and predominated by the multivector \(a\) of width \(q\) and length \(p\) (i.e. placing \(a\) before the first row of \(T\), the resulting tableau is standard again). The main result of the paper under review is a formula which, fixing \(q\) even, \(p\), \(m\) and \(a\), gives a polynomial in \(V\) which is equal to the cardinality of \(\text{stab}(q,m,p,a,V)\). The main motivation for this result comes from the work of Abhyankar on enumerating Young multitableaux. It also generalizes the important Abhyankar formula for \(\text{stab}(2,m,p,a,V)\) which is a basic ingredient of Abhyankar's enumerative proof of the straightening law of Doubilet-Rota-Stein. Using the notion of a \(q\)-dimensional determinant, as a consequence of the main result of this paper, the author shows that the natural generalization of the straightening law for multitableaux is not true in general for even \(q>2\). The author also answers several problems posed in [\textit{S. S. Abhyankar}, Enumerative combinatorics of Young tableaux, Dekker, New York-Basel (1988; Zbl 0643.05001)].