Hybrid tableaux and the Littlewood-Richardson rule (Q809103)

The author introduces the notion of hybrid tableaux, subsuming as special cases not only the more familiar column-strict and row-strict tableaux but also rim-hook tableaux. The latter arise in the Murnaghan-Nakayama formula for characters of the symmetric group, while column-strict tableaux arise in the Weyl formula for characters of the general linear group which may be expressed in terms of Schur functions. Here the author exploits an involution principle [\textit{A. M. Garsia} and \textit{S. C. Milne}, J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 31, 289-339 (1981; Zbl 0477.05009)] involving signed sets to establish combinatorially the fact that certain multplicities associated with both characters of the symmetric group and products of Schur functions are identical and are governed by the Littlewood-Richardson rule. The proof invokes a number of signed bijections and switching rules, which are generously illustrated. The use of hybrid tableaux allows for a uniform approach.