On the Existence of Tableaux with Given Modular Major Index

Abstract: We provide simple necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a standard Young tableau of a given shape and major index $r$ mod $n$, for all $r$. Our result generalizes the $r=1$ case due essentially to (1974) and proves a recent conjecture due to Sundaram (2016) for the $r=0$ case. A byproduct of the proof is an asymptotic equidistribution result for "almost all" shapes. The proof uses a representation-theoretic formula involving Ramanujan sums and normalized symmetric group character estimates. Further estimates involving "opposite" hook lengths are given which are well-adapted to classifying which partitions $\lambda \vdash n$ have $f^\lambda \leq n^d$ for fixed $d$. We also give a new proof of a generalization of the hook length formula due to Fomin-Lulov (1995) for symmetric group characters at rectangles. We conclude with some remarks on unimodality of symmetric group characters.