Almost Product Evaluation of Hankel Determinants

An extensive literature exists describing various techniques for the evaluation of Hankel determinants. The prevailing methods such as Dodgson condensation, continued fraction expansion, LU decomposition, all produce product formulas when they are applicable. We mention the classic case of the Hankel determinants with binomial entries ${3 k +2 \choose k}$ and those with entries ${3 k \choose k}$; both of these classes of Hankel determinants have product form evaluations. The intermediate case, ${3 k +1 \choose k}$ has not been evaluated. There is a good reason for this: these latter determinants do not have product form evaluations. In this paper we evaluate the Hankel determinant of ${3 k +1 \choose k}$. The evaluation is a sum of a small number of products, an almost product. The method actually provides more, and as applications, we present the salient points for the evaluation of a number of other Hankel determinants with polynomial entries, along with product and almost product form evaluations at special points.