Limit shapes and fluctuations for $(GL_n, GL_k)$ skew Howe duality

Abstract

We consider the probability measures on Young diagrams in the $n \times k$ rectangle obtained by piecewise-continuously differentiable specializations of Schur polynomials in the dual Cauchy identity. We use a free fermionic representation of the correlation kernel to study its asymptotic behavior and derive the uniform convergence to a limit shape of Young diagrams in the limit $n,k \to \infty$. More specifically, we show the bulk is the discrete sine kernel with boundary fluctuations generically given by the Tracy-Widom distribution with the Airy kernel. When our limit shape touches the boundary corner of the rectangle, the fluctuations with a second order correction are given by the discrete Hermite kernel, and we recover the discrete distribution of Gravner-Tracy-Widom (2001) [arXiv:math/0005133] restricting to the leading order. Finally, we demonstrate our limit shapes can have sections with no or full density of particles, where the Pearcey kernel appears when such a section is infinitely small.