A combinatorial proof for Cayley's identity

Abstract

In a recent paper, Caracciolo, Sokal and Sportiello presented, inter alia, an algebraic/combinatorial proof for Cayley's identity. The purpose of the present paper is to give a "purely combinatorial" proof for this identity; i.e., a proof involving only combinatorial arguments together with a generalization of Laplace's Theorem, for which a "purely combinatorial" proof is already known.