Refined Enumeration of Halved Monotone Triangles and Applications to Vertically Symmetric Alternating Sign Trapezoids

Abstract

Halved monotone triangles are a generalisation of vertically symmetric alternating sign matrices (VSASMs). We provide a weighted enumeration of halved monotone triangles with respect to a parameter which generalises the number of $-1$s in a VSASM. Among other things, this enables us to establish a generating function for vertically symmetric alternating sign trapezoids. Our results are mainly presented in terms of constant term expressions. For the proofs, we exploit Fischer's method of operator formulae as a key tool.

26 pages, 9 figures. Final version. Incorporated the referees' comments and suggestions