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Rigged Configurations and Catalan, Stretched Parabolic Kostka Numbers and Polynomials: Polynomiality, Unimodality and Log-concavity

We will look at the Catalan numbers from the {\it Rigged Configurations} point of view originated \cite{Kir} from an combinatorial analysis of the Bethe Ansatz Equations associated with the higher spin anisotropic Heisenberg models . Our strategy is to take a combinatorial interpretation of Catalan numbers $C_n$ as the number of standard Young tableaux of rectangular shape $(n^2)$, or equivalently, as the Kostka number $K_{(n^2),1^{2n}}$, as the starting point of research. We observe that the rectangular (or multidimensional) Catalan numbers $ C(m,n)$ introduced and studied by P. MacMahon \cite{Mc}, \cite{Su1}, see also \cite{Su2}, can be identified with the Kostka number $K_{(n^m),1^{mn}}$, and therefore can be treated by Rigged Configurations technique. Based on this technique we study the stretched Kostka numbers and polynomials, and give a proof of `` a strong rationality `` of the stretched Kostka polynomials. This result implies a polynomiality property of the stretched Kostka and stretched Littlewood--Richardson coefficients \cite{KT}, \cite{Ras}, \cite{Ki1}. Another application of the Rigged Configuration technique presented, is a new family of counterexamples to Okounkov's log-concavity conjecture \cite{Ok}. Finally, we apply Rigged Configurations technique to give a combinatorial prove of the unimodality of the principal specialization of the internal product of Schur functions. In fact we prove a combinatorial formula for generalized $q$-Gaussian polynomials which is a far generalization of the so-called $KOH$-identity \cite{O}, as well as it manifests the unimodality property of the $q$-Gaussian polynomials.