Robinson-Schensted algorithms for skew tableaux (Q809104)

If \(\lambda\) and \(\mu\) are partitions with \(\mu\subseteq \lambda\) then \(\lambda/\mu\) is a skew shape consisting of those nodes of the Ferrers diagram specified by \(\lambda\) which do not belong to that specified by \(\mu\). A skew tableau of shape \(\lambda/\mu\) is a labelling of the nodes of \(\lambda/\mu\) with an ordered alphabet so that the labels in the rows and columns are weakly increasing. Let \(f_{\lambda/\mu}\) be the number of standard skew tableaux of shape \(\lambda/\mu\) in which the labels are taken, without repetition from the set \(\{1,2,...,n\}\) with \(n=| \lambda/\mu|\), and let \(s_{\lambda /\mu}(x)\) be the skew Schur function found by enumerating the generalized skew tableaux of shape \(\lambda/\mu\) in which repetitions are allowed but the labels in columns are strictly increasing. The authors use a number of variations on the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence to establish bijectively an impressive array of identities involving first \(f_{\lambda/\mu}\) and then \(s_{\lambda/\mu}(x)\). Further generalization to the case of skew shifted tableaux yield bijective proofs of identities involving the parameters \(g_{\lambda/\mu}\) associated with projective representations of the symmetric group, and others involving certain special cases, \(P_{\lambda/\mu}(x)\) and \(Q_{\lambda/\mu}(x)\), of the Hall-Littlewood symmetric functions. The authors end with the comment that they ``have only begun to scratch the surface in the skew case'' and outline some directions for future research.