Some aspects of Hankel matrices in coding theory and combinatorics (Q5954315)

Summary: Hankel matrices consisting of Catalan numbers have been analyzed by various authors. Desainte-Catherine and Viennot found their determinant to be \[ \prod_{1 \leq i \leq j \leq k} {{i+j+2n}\over {i+j}} \] and related them to the Bender-Knuth conjecture. The similar determinant formula \[ \prod_{1 \leq i \leq j \leq k} {{i+j-1+2n}\over {i+j-1}} \] can be shown to hold for Hankel matrices whose entries are successive middle binomial coefficients \({{2m+1} \choose m}\). Generalizing the Catalan numbers in a different direction, it can be shown that determinants of Hankel matrices consisting of numbers \({{1}\over {3m+1}} {{3m+1} \choose m}\) yield an alternate expression of two Mills-Robbins-Rumsey determinants important in the enumeration of plane partitions and alternating sign matrices. Hankel matrices with determinant 1 were studied by Aigner in the definition of Catalan-like numbers. The well-known relation of Hankel matrices to orthogonal polynomials further yields a combinatorial application of the famous Berlekamp-Massey algorithm in coding theory, which can be applied in order to calculate the coefficients in the three-term recurrence of the family of orthogonal polynomials related to the sequence of Hankel matrices.