Identities in character tables of $S_n$

Abstract

In the classic "Concrete Math", by Graham, Patashnik and Knuth, it is stated that "The numbers in Pascal's triangle satisfy, practically speaking, infinitely many identities, so it is not too surprising that we can find some surprising relationships by looking closely." The aim of this note is to indicate that a similar statement seems to hold for the character tables of the symmetric groups $S_n$. Just as important, it is a case-study in using a computer algebra system to prove deep identities, way beyond the ability of mere humans. This article is accomanied by a Maple pacgage, Sn, and ample output, avaialble from the webpage http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/mamarim/mamarimhtml/sn.html .