Hook formulas for skew shapes II. Combinatorial proofs and enumerative applications

TL;DR

This paper provides an elementary proof of the Naruse hook-length formula for skew shapes, introduces new formulas for Euler numbers, and explores combinatorial applications related to border strips and Dyck paths.

Contribution

It offers a new elementary proof of Naruse's formula and derives novel combinatorial formulas for Euler and q-Euler numbers.

Findings

Elementary proof of Naruse's formula based on border strips

New formulas for Euler and q-Euler numbers involving Dyck paths

Enhanced understanding of hook-length formulas for skew shapes

Abstract

The Naruse hook-length formula is a recent general formula for the number of standard Young tableaux of skew shapes, given as a positive sum over excited diagrams of products of hook-lengths. In 2015 we gave two different $q$-analogues of Naruse's formula: for the skew Schur functions, and for counting reverse plane partitions of skew shapes. In this paper we give an elementary proof of Naruse's formula based on the case of border strips. For special border strips, we obtain curious new formulas for the Euler and $q$-Euler numbers in terms of certain Dyck path summations.