Surprising Relations Between Sums-Of-Squares of Character of The Symmetric Group Over Two-Rowed Shapes and Over Hook Shapes

Surprising Relations Between Sums-Of-Squares of Characters of the Symmetric Group Over Two-Rowed Shapes and Over Hook Shapes
By Amitai Regev and Doron Zeilberger

.pdf .ps .tex

Written: Oct. 20, 2015
Appeared Séminaire Lotharingien de Combinatoire v. 75 (2016), B75c.

In the interesting article it was noted (and proved) that the sum of the squares of the characters of the symmetric group
Σ (χ^λ(μ) )²
over all shapes λ with two rows and n cells and μ=31^n-3 equals, surprisingly, to 1/2 of that sum taken over all hook shapes with n+2 cells and with μ equals 321^n-3.
[This was first conjectured, by Alon Regev, using the OEIS.]
But that is only the tip of an iceberg! First we asked Shalosh to search for other such miracles, and then we were able to conjecture that whenever μ consists of only odd parts, then the sum over two-rowed shapes with n cells is equal to 1/2 of the sum over hook shapes with n+2 cells and where 2 is appended to μ. More generally, when μ consists of odd parts and consecutive powers of 2: 2,2², ..., 2^r-1, then the corresponding sum over hook-shapes is where μ is replaced by μ' that is obtained from μ by keeping the odd parts and replacing the string of powers of 2 by 2^r .
The original conjecture was made (by Alon Regev) thanks to the OEIS! So, without the OEIS, this paper (like so many other ones) would not have come to be.

Added Oct. 27, 2016: Christine Bessenrodt discovered (and proved) a lovely refinement

Maple Package
Important: This article is accompanied by the new version of the Maple package

Sn, that accompanied this article, but with new procedures added. To see the new procedures, type: ezraY();

New Input and Output for the Maple package Sn

If you want to see many new remarkable identities that gave rise to the present paper
the input yields the output

Doron Zeilberger's List of Papers

Doron Zeilberger's Home Page