Diagonal hooks and a Schmidt-type partition identity (Q2138566)

The Durfee square of a partition is the largest squre that fits inside the Ferrers diagram of the partition. The hook lengths of the \(i\)-th diagonal entry of the Durfee square of a partition \(\lambda\) (denoted by \(\Gamma_i(\lambda)\)) are called the diagonal hook lengths of the partition. The main result proved in this paper is the following: Let \(\gamma_e(n)\) (resp. \(\gamma_o(n)\)) be the number of partitions \(\lambda\) such that its length (number of parts) and the length of its Durfee square has the same parity (resp. different parities) and the diagonal hook lengths satisfy \(\sum_{i\geq 1}(\Gamma_{2i-1}(\lambda)+1)=n\), then \(\gamma_e(n)-\gamma_o(n)\) equals the number of partitions of \(n\) into even parts. The authors give both analytical and combinatorial proofs of this result and discuss certain variations.