Super-Macdonald Polynomials: Orthogonality and Hilbert Space Interpretation

The super-Macdonald polynomials, introduced by Sergeev and Veselov (Commun Math Phys 288: 653–675, 2009), generalise the Macdonald polynomials to (arbitrary numbers of) two kinds of variables, and they are eigenfunctions of the deformed Macdonald–Ruijsenaars operators introduced by the same authors in Sergeev and Veselov (Commun Math Phys 245: 249–278, 2004). We introduce a Hermitian form on the algebra spanned by the super-Macdonald polynomials, prove their orthogonality, compute their (quadratic) norms explicitly, and establish a corresponding Hilbert space interpretation of the super-Macdonald polynomials and deformed Macdonald–Ruijsenaars operators. This allows for a quantum mechanical interpretation of the models defined by the deformed Macdonald–Ruijsenaars operators. Motivated by recent results in the nonrelativistic ($$q\rightarrow 1$$ q → 1 ) case, we propose that these models describe the particles and anti-particles of an underlying relativistic quantum field theory, thus providing a natural generalisation of the trigonometric Ruijsenaars model.