A Ferrers diagram represents partitions as patterns of dots, with the th
row having the same number of dots as the th term in the partition. The
spelling "Ferrars" (Skiena 1990, pp. 53 and 78) is sometimes also
used, and the diagram is sometimes called a graphical representation or Ferrers graph
(Andrews 1998, p. 6). A Ferrers diagram of the partition
for a list ,
, ..., of positive integers with
is therefore the
arrangement of
dots or square boxes in
rows, such that the dots or boxes are left-justified, the first row is of length
, the second row is of length , and so on, with the th row of length . The above diagram corresponds to one of the possible partitions
of 100.
The Ferrers diagram of a given partition is implemented in the Wolfram Function Repository as ResourceFunction["FerrersDiagram"][n].
The partitions of integers less than or equal to in which there are at most parts and in which no part is larger than correspond (1) to Young tableaux which fit inside an rectangle and (2) to lattice
paths which travel from the upper right corner of the rectangle to the lower left
in
leftward and downward steps. The number of Young diagrams fitting inside an rectangle is given by the binomial coefficient . The above example shows the