Representation-theoretic proof of the inner product and symmetry   identities for Macdonald's polynomials
  This paper is a continuation of our papers \cite{EK1, EK2}. In \cite{EK2} we showed that for the root system $A_{n-1}$ one can obtain Macdonald's polynomials as weighted traces of intertwining operators between certain finite-dimensional representations of $U_q(sl_n)$. The main goal of the present paper is to use this construction to give a representation-theoretic proof of Macdonald's inner product and symmetry identities for the root system $A_{n-1}$. The proofs are based on the techniques of ribbon graphs developed by Reshetikhin and Turaev. We also use the symmetry identities to derive recursive relations for Macdonald's polynomials. 
Pavel Etingof, Alexander Kirillov Jr