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First page of Degeneracy graph determinants and higher-dimensional Young diagrams

Degeneracy graph determinants and higher-dimensional Young diagrams

Sanjaye Ramgoolam, Michał Studziński

hep-th Oct 14, 2026 · v1 math-ph math.CO math.RT quant-ph
Credits an independent Lean 4 formalization, by Ma and Zhang, of the same determinant and monomial-basis conjectures, with a public GitHub repository.
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.

Kemp and Ramgoolam proposed a monomial basis for commutative semisimple algebras generated by C_1,...,C_L, built from a degeneracy graph. They conjectured a factorised formula for the determinant of the monomial evaluation matrix on the projector basis, as a product of powers of sibling eigenvalue differences.

The authors introduce graph analogues of Newton polynomials, related to the graph monomials by a unitriangular change of basis. Expanding the rows of siblings in a Newton basis of their eigenvalues makes the evaluation matrix block triangular. The diagonal blocks correspond to smaller degeneracy graphs with the last layer removed, giving an induction on the number of layers. An independent proof of the same conjectures by Ma and Zhang, formalized in Lean 4, is acknowledged in a note.

The determinant formula is proved for any number of generators, so the graph monomials form a basis. The exponents are shown to be overlap volumes of higher-dimensional Young diagrams attached to graph nodes. The block structure also gives an explicit recursive inversion that expresses the projectors in the monomial basis.