From Characters to Quantum (Super)Spin Chains via Fusion

We give an elementary proof of the Bazhanov-Reshetikhin determinant formula for rational transfer matrices of the twisted quantum super-spin chains associated with the gl(K|M) algebra. This formula describes the most general fusion of transfer matrices in symmetric representations into arbitrary finite dimensional representations of the algebra and is at the heart of analytical Bethe ansatz approach. Our technique represents a systematic generalization of the usual Jacobi-Trudi formula for characters to its quantum analogue using certain group derivatives.