The Kronecker product of Schur functions indexed by two-row shapes or hook shapes

Abstract

The Kronecker product of two Schur functions $s_μ$ and $s_ν$, denoted by $s_μ*s_ν$, is the Frobenius characteristic of the tensor product of the irreducible representations of the symmetric group corresponding to the partitions $μ$ and $ν$. The coefficient of $s_λ$ in this product is denoted by $γ^λ_{μν}$, and corresponds to the multiplicity of the irreducible character $χ^λ$ in $χ^μχ^ν.$ We use Sergeev's Formula for a Schur function of a difference of two alphabets and the comultiplication expansion for $s_λ[XY]$ to find closed formulas for the Kronecker coefficients $γ^λ_{μν}$ when $λ$ is an arbitrary shape and $μ$ and $ν$ are hook shapes or two-row shapes. Remmel \cite{Re1, Re2} and Remmel and Whitehead \cite{Re-Wh} derived some closed formulas for the Kronecker product of Schur functions indexed by two-row shapes or hook shapes using a different approach. We believe that the approach of this paper is more natural. The formulas obtained are simpler and reflect the symmetry of the Kronecker product.