The multivariate Hahn polynomials and the singular oscillator

Karlin and McGregor's d-variable Hahn polynomials are shown to arise in the (d+1)-dimensional singular oscillator model as the overlap coefficients between bases associated to the separation of variables in Cartesian and hyperspherical coordinates. These polynomials in d discrete variables depend on d+1 real parameters and are orthogonal with respect to the multidimensional hypergeometric distribution. The focus is put on the d=2 case for which the connection with the three-dimensional singular oscillator is used to derive the main properties of the polynomials: forward/backward shift operators, orthogonality relation, generating function, recurrence relations, bispectrality (difference equations) and explicit expression in terms of the univariate Hahn polynomials. The extension of these results to an arbitrary number of variables is presented at the end of the paper.