A multilinear algebra proof of the Cauchy-Binet formula and a multilinear version of Parseval's identity

We give a short proof of the Cauchy-Binet determinantal formula using multilinear algebra by first generalizing it to an identity {\em not} involving determinants. By extending the formula to abstract Hilbert spaces we obtain, as a corollary, a generalization of the classical Parseval identity.Comment: 9 pages, 2 diagram

On the equivalence of two fundamental theta identities

Two fundamental theta identities, a three-term identity due to Weierstrass and a five-term identity due to Jacobi, both with products of four theta functions as terms, are shown to be equivalent. One half of the equivalence was already proved by R.J. Chapman in 1996. The history and usage of the two identities, and some generalizations are also discussed.Comment: v3: 15 pages, minor errors corrected, references added, appendix on four-term theta identities added, accepted by Analysis and Application

Proof of George Andrews's and David Robbins's q-TSPP Conjecture

The conjecture that the orbit-counting generating function for totally symmetric plane partitions can be written as an explicit product formula, has been stated independently by George Andrews and David Robbins around 1983. We present a proof of this long-standing conjecture

Distance matrices of a tree: two more invariants, and in a unified framework

Graham-Pollak showed that for $D = D_T$ the distance matrix of a tree $T$, det$(D)$ depends only on its number of edges. Several other variants of $D$, including directed/multiplicative/$q$- versions were studied, and always, det$(D)$ depends only on the edge-data. We introduce a general framework for bi-directed weighted trees, with threefold significance. First, we improve on state-of-the-art for all known variants, even in the classical Graham-Pollak case: we delete arbitrary pendant nodes (and more general subsets) from the rows/columns of $D$, and show these minors do not depend on the tree-structure. Second, our setting unifies all known variants (with entries in a commutative ring). We further compute in closed form the inverse of $D$, extending a result of Graham-Lovasz [Adv. Math. 1978] and answering a question of Bapat-Lal-Pati [Lin. Alg. Appl. 2006]. Third, we compute a second function of the matrix $D$: the sum of all its cofactors, cof$(D)$. This was worked out in the simplest setting by Graham-Hoffman-Hosoya (1978), but is relatively unexplored for other variants. We prove a stronger result, in our general setting, by computing cof$(.)$ for minors as above, and showing these too depend only on the edge-data. Finally, we show our setting is the 'most general possible', in that with more freedom in the edgeweights, det$(D)$ and cof$(D)$ depend on the tree structure. In a sense, this completes the study of the invariant det$(D_T)$ (and cof$(D_T)$) for trees $T$ with edge-data in a commutative ring. Moreover: for a bi-directed graph $G$ we prove multiplicative Graham-Hoffman-Hosoya type formulas for det$(D_G)$, cof$(D_G)$, $D_G^{-1}$. We then show how this subsumes their 1978 result. The final section introduces and computes a third, novel invariant for trees and a Graham-Hoffman-Hosoya type result for our "most general" distance matrix $D_T$.Comment: 42 pages, 2 figures; minor edits in the proof of Theorems A and 1.1