Plane partitions with bounded size of parts and biorthogonal polynomials

Abstract

Nice formulae for plane partitions with bounded size of parts (or boxed plane partitions), which generalize the norm-trace generating function by Stanley and the trace generating function by Gansner, are exhibited. The derivation of the nice formulae is based on lattice path combinatorics of biorthogonal polynomials, especially of the little $q$-Laguerre polynomials and a generalization of the little $q$-Laguerre polynomials. A summation formula which generalizes the $q$-Chu-Vandermonde identity is also shown and utilized to prove the orthogonality of the generalized little $q$-Laguerre polynomials.