Degeneracy graph determinants and higher-dimensional Young diagrams

Abstract

Kemp and Ramgoolam proposed a basis of monomials for a commutative semisimple algebra with generators \(C_1,\ldots, C_L\), constructed from a degeneracy graph which records how the eigenspaces of \( C_1\) are successively split by \( C_2,\ldots, C_L\). They showed that the basis property is equivalent to the non-vanishing of the determinant of the matrix of values of these monomials on the projector basis, and conjectured a factorised formula for this determinant, as a product of powers of eigenvalue differences. We prove this formula for any number of generators. The proof uses graph analogues of Newton polynomials. Their evaluation matrix is not triangular in general, but expanding the rows of the children of each node of the penultimate layer in a Newton basis of their eigenvalues makes it block triangular, with diagonal blocks given by smaller degeneracy graphs in which the final layer is removed. The formula then follows by induction on the number of layers. We show that the exponents in the determinant are overlap volumes of higher-dimensional Young diagrams attached to the nodes of the graph: intervals, ordinary Young diagrams, plane partitions and their higher analogues. Finally, the block triangular structure gives an explicit recursive inversion of the evaluation matrix, expressing the projectors in the monomial basis.