Path pairs are a modification of parallelogram polyominoes that provide yet another combinatorial interpretation of the Catalan numbers. More generally, the number of path pairs of length $n$ and distance $δ$ corresponds to the $(n-1,δ-1)$ entry of Shapiro's so-called Catalan triangle. In this paper, we widen the notion of path pairs $(γ_1,γ_2)$ to the situation where $γ_1$ and $γ_2$ may have different lengths, and then enforce divisibility conditions on runs of vertical steps in $γ_2$. This creates a two-parameter family of integer triangles that generalize the Catalan triangle and qualify as proper Riordan arrays for many choices of parameters. In particular, we use generalized path pairs to provide a new combinatorial interpretation for all entries in every proper Riordan array $\mathcal{R}(d(t),h(t))$ of the form $d(t) = C_k(t)^i$, $h(t) = t \kern+1pt C_k(t)^k$, where $1 \leq i \leq k$ and $C_k(t)$ is the generating function for some sequence of Fuss-Catalan numbers (some $k \geq 2$). Closed formulas are then provided for the number of generalized path pairs across an even broader range of parameters, as well as for the number of weak path pairs with a fixed number of non-initial intersections.
The Catalan numbers $C_n$ are an extremely well-studied sequence of numbers that appear as the answer to many combinatorial problems. Two generalizations of these numbers that have been studied are the Fuss-Catalan numbers and the Hypergraph Catalan numbers. In this paper, we study the combination of these, the Hypergraph Fuss-Catalan numbers. We provide some combinatorial interpretations of these numbers, as well as describe their generating function.
In this note we introduce a determinant and then give its evaluating formula. The determinant turns out to be a generalization of the well-known ballot and Fuss-Catalan numbers, which is believed to be new. The evaluating formula is proved by showing that the determinant coincides with the number of lattice paths with (1,0), (0,1)-steps in the plane that stay below a boundary line of rational slope.
The modular Catalan numbers $C_{k,n}$, introduced by Hein and Huang in 2016 count equivalence classes of parenthesizations of $x_0 * x_1 * \dots *x_n$ where $*$ is a binary $k$-associative operation and $k$ is a positive integer. The classical notion of associativity is just 1-associativity, in which case $C_{1,n} = 1$ and the size of the unique class is given by the Catalan number $C_n$. In this paper we introduce modular Fuss-Catalan numbers $C_{k,n}^{m}$ which count equivalence classes of parenthesizations of $x_0 * x_1 * \dots *x_n$ where $*$ is an $m$-ary $k$-associative operation for $m …
In type A, the q,t-Fuss -Catalan numbers can be defined as a bigraded Hilbert series of a module associated to the symmetric group S_n. We generalize this construction to (finite) complex reflection groups and exhibit some nice conjectured algebraic and combinatorial properties of these polynomials in q and t. Finally, we present an idea how these polynomials could be related to some graded Hilbert series of modules arising in the context of rational Cherednik algebras. This is work in progress.
Three families of posets depending on a nonnegative integer parameter $m$ are introduced. The underlying sets of these posets are enumerated by the $m$-Fuss Catalan numbers. Among these, one is a generalization of Stanley lattices and another one is a generalization of Tamari lattices. The three families of posets are related: they fit into a chain for the order extension relation and they share some properties. Two associative algebras are constructed as quotients of generalizations of the Malvenuto-Reutenauer algebra. Their products describe intervals of our analogues of Stanley lattices and…
In this note we give explicitly a family of probability densities, the moments of which are Fuss-Catalan numbers. The densities appear naturally in random matrices, free probability and other contexts.
We study properties of the Fuss-Catalan distributions $μ(p,r)$, $p\geq1$, $0<r\leq p$: free infinite divisibility, free self-decomposability, free regularity and unimodality. We show that the Fuss-Catalan distribution $μ(p,r)$ is freely self-decomposable if and only if $1 \leq p=r \leq 2$.
Catalan numbers $C(n)=\frac{1}{n+1}{2n\choose n}$ enumerate binary trees and Dyck paths. The distribution of paths with respect to their number $k$ of factors is given by ballot numbers $B(n,k)=\frac{n-k}{n+k}{n+k\choose n}$. These integers are known to satisfy simple recurrence, which may be visualised in a ``Catalan triangle'', a lower-triangular two-dimensional array. It is surprising that the extension of this construction to 3 dimensions generates integers $B_3(n,k,l)$ that give a 2-parameter distribution of $C_3(n)=\frac 1 {2n+1} {3n\choose n}$, which may be called order-3 Fuss-Catalan n…
The three main objects in noncrossing Catalan combinatorics associated to a finite Coxeter system are noncrossing partitions, clusters, and sortable elements. The first two of these have known Fuss-Catalan generalizations. We provide new viewpoints for both and introduce the missing generalization of sortable elements by lifting the theory from the Coxeter system to the associated positive Artin monoid. We show how this new perspective ties together all three generalizations, providing a uniform framework for noncrossing Fuss-Catalan combinatorics. Having developed the combinatorial theory, we…
We introduce $δ$-cliffs, a generalization of permutations and increasing trees depending on a range map $δ$. We define a first lattice structure on these objects and we establish general results about its subposets. Among them, we describe sufficient conditions to have EL-shellable posets, lattices with algorithms to compute the meet and the join of two elements, and lattices constructible by interval doubling. Some of these subposets admit natural geometric realizations. Then, we introduce three families of subposets which, for some maps $δ$, have underlying sets enumerated by the Fuss-Catala…
In type A, the q,t-Fuss-Catalan numbers can be defined as a bigraded Hilbert series of a module associated to the symmetric group. We generalize this construction to (finite) complex reflection groups and, based on computer experiments, we exhibit several conjectured algebraic and combinatorial properties of these polynomials with non-negative integer coefficients. We prove the conjectures for the dihedral groups and for the cyclic groups. Finally, we present several ideas how the q,t-Fuss-Catalan numbers could be related to some graded Hilbert series of modules arising in the context of ratio…
We study some combinatorial and algebraic properties of certain quadratic algebras related with dynamical classical and classical Yang-Baxter equations. One can find more details about the content of present paper in Extended Abstract.
We introduce a class of sequences, defined by means of partial Bell polynomials, that contains a basis for the space of linear recurrence sequences with constant coefficients as well as other well-known sequences like Catalan and Motzkin. For the family of `Bell sequences' considered in this paper, we give a general multifold convolution formula and illustrate our result with a few explicit examples.
Recently, a combinatorial interpretation of Baldoni and Vergne's generalized Lidskii formula for the volume of a flow polytope was developed by Benedetti et al.. This converts the problem of computing Kostant partition functions into a problem of enumerating a set of objects called unified diagrams. We devise an enhanced version of this combinatorial model to compute the volumes of flow polytopes defined on a family of graphs called the k-caracol graphs, resulting in the first application of the model to non-planar graphs. At k=1 and k=n-1, we recover results for the classical caracol graph an…
A recent pair of papers of Armstrong, Loehr, and Warrington and Armstrong, Williams, and the author initiated the systematic study of {\em rational Catalan combinatorics} which is a generalization of Fuss-Catalan combinatorics (which is in turn a generalization of classical Catalan combinatorics). The latter paper gave two possible models for a rational analog of the associahedron which attach simplicial complexes to any pair of coprime positive integers a < b. These complexes coincide up to the Fuss-Catalan level of generality, but in general one may be a strict subcomplex of the other. Verif…
We present determinantal representations of the Catalan numbers, k-Fuss-Catalan numbers, and its generalized number. The entries of the normalized Hessenberg matrices are the binomial coefficients that related with the enumeration of lattice paths.
The Catalan numbers constitute one of the most important sequences in combinatorics. Catalan objects have been generalized in various directions, including the classical Fuss-Catalan objects and the rational Catalan generalization of Armstrong-Rhoades-Williams. We propose a wider generalization of these families indexed by a composition $s$ which is motivated by the combinatorics of planar rooted trees; when $s=(2,...,2)$ and $s=(k+1,...,k+1)$ we recover the classical Catalan and Fuss-Catalan combinatorics, respectively. Furthermore, to each pair $(a,b)$ of relatively prime numbers we can asso…
We give a short proof for a formula for the number of divisions of a convex (sn+2)-gon along non-crossing diagonals into (sj+2)-gons, where 1<=j<=n-1. In other words, we consider dissections of an (sn+2)-gon into pieces which can be further subdivided into (s+2)-gons. This formula generalizes the formulas for classical numbers of polygon dissections: Euler-Catalan number, Fuss number and Kirkman-Cayley number. Our proof is elementary and does not use the method of generating functions.
We establish a bijection between $d$-simple-minded systems ($d$-SMSs) of $(-d)$-Calabi-Yau cluster category ${\cal C_{-d}}(H)$ and silting objects of ${\cal D^{\rm b}}(H)$ contained in $\cal D^{\le 0}\cap \cal D^{\ge 1-d}$ for hereditary algebra $H$ of Dynkin type and $d\ge 1$. We show that the number of $d$-SMSs in ${\cal C_{-d}}(H)$ is the positive Fuss-Catalan number $C_{d}^{+}(W)$ of the corresponding Weyl group $W$, by applying this bijection and Buan-Reiten-Thomas' and Zhu's results on Fomin-Reading's generalized cluster complexes. Our results are based on a refined version of silting-$t…
We use Riordan array theory to give characterizations of the Borel triangle and its associated polynomial sequence. We show that the Borel polynomials are the moment sequence for a family of orthogonal polynomials whose coefficient array is a Riordan array. The role of the Catalan matrix in defining the Borel triangle is examined. We generalize the Borel triangle to a family of two parameter triangles. Generating functions are expressed as Jacobi continued fractions, as well as the zeros of appropriate quadratic expressions. The Borel triangle is exhibited as a Hadamard product of matrices. We…
The Catalan triangle, as well as a Fuss-Catalan triangle, enter a problem of counting particular tied arc diagrams. This setting allows us to prove some combinatorial properties of these triangles.
For any graph consisting of $k$ vertices and $m$ edges we construct an ensemble of random pure quantum states which describe a system composed of $2m$ subsystems. Each edge of the graph represents a bi-partite, maximally entangled state. Each vertex represents a random unitary matrix generated according to the Haar measure, which describes the coupling between subsystems. Dividing all subsystems into two parts, one may study entanglement with respect to this partition. A general technique to derive an expression for the average entanglement entropy of random pure states associated to a given g…
A combinatorial structure, $\mathcal{F}$, with counting sequence $\{a_n\}_{n\ge 0}$ and ordinary generating function $G_\mathcal{F}=\sum_{n\ge0} a_n x^n$, is positive algebraic if $G_\mathcal{F}$ satisfies a polynomial equation $G_\mathcal{F}=\sum_{k=0}^N p_k(x)\,G_\mathcal{F}^k $ and $p_k(x)$ is a polynomial in $x$ with non-negative integer coefficients. We show that every such family is associated with a normed $\mathbf{n}$-magma. An $\mathbf{n}$-magma with $\mathbf{n}=(n_1,\dots, n_k)$ is a pair $\mathcal{M}$ and $\mathcal{F}$ where $\mathcal{M}$ is a set of combinatorial structures and $\m…
We consider Tuenter polynomials as linear combinations of descending factorials and show that coefficients of these linear combinations are expressed via a Catalan triangle of numbers. We also describe a triangle of coefficients in terms of some polynomials.
We count the number of closed walks on a vertex in a regular tree using the Catalan's triangle and also the Borel's triangle, showing another combinatorial structure counted by these two array of numbers.
We construct (q,t)-Catalan polynomials and q-Fuss-Catalan polynomials for any irreducible complex reflection group W. The two main ingredients in this construction are Rouquier's formulation of shift functors for the rational Cherednik algebras of W, and Opdam's analysis of permutations of the irreducible representations of W arising from the Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov connection.
The Catalan number sequence is one of the most famous number sequences in combinatorics and is well studied in the literature. In this paper we further investigate its fundamental properties related to the moment problem and prove for the first time that it is an infinitely divisible Stieltjes moment sequence in the sense of S.-G. Tyan. Besides, any positive real power of the sequence is still a Stieltjes determinate sequence. Some more cases including (a) the central binomial coefficient sequence (related to the Catalan sequence), (b) a double factorial number sequence and (c) the generalized…
In this paper, we define four transformations on the classical Catalan triangle $\mathcal{C}=(C_{n,k})_{n\geq k\geq 0}$ with $C_{n,k}=\frac{k+1}{n+1}\binom{2n-k}{n}$. The first three ones are based on the determinant and the forth is utilizing the permanent of a square matrix. It not only produces many known and new identities involving Catalan numbers, but also provides a new viewpoint on combinatorial triangles.
We calculate moments of the so-called Kesten distribution by means of the expansion of the denominator of the density of this distribution and then integrate all summands with respect to the semicircle distribution. By comparing this expression with the formulae for the moments of Kesten's distribution obtained by other means, we find identities involving polynomials whose power coefficients are closely related to Catalan numbers, Catalan triangles, binomial coefficients. Finally, as applications of these identities we obtain various interesting relations between the aforementioned numbers, al…
The notion of a mesh pattern was introduced recently, but it has already proved to be a useful tool for description purposes related to sets of permutations. In this paper we study eight mesh patterns of small lengths. In particular, we link avoidance of one of the patterns to the harmonic numbers, while for three other patterns we show their distributions on 132-avoiding permutations are given by the Catalan triangle. Also, we show that two specific mesh patterns are Wilf-equivalent. As a byproduct of our studies, we define a new set of sequences counted by the Catalan numbers and provide a r…
Standard set-valued Young tableaux are a generalization of standard Young tableaux in which cells may contain more than one integer, with the added conditions that every integer at position $(i,j)$ must be smaller than every integer at positions $(i,j+1)$ and $(i+1,j)$. This paper explores the combinatorics of standard set-valued Young tableaux with two-rows, and how those tableaux may be used to provide new combinatorial interpretations of generalized Catalan numbers. New combinatorial interpretations are provided for the two-parameter Fuss-Catalan numbers (Raney numbers), the rational Catala…
The classic Dyck triangle, the Catalan triangle, and the Catalan convolution matrix are plane projections of the multidimensional Dyck triangle. In the Dyck path, each node is uniquely determined by two of four interrelated parameters: (i) the position of the current parenthesis, (ii) the current unbalance of the parentheses, (iii) the number of viewed left parentheses, and (iv) the same for right parentheses. The last two parameters can be redefined, respectively, as the index of the current Catalan number and the index of the summand in the decomposition of the Catalan number into the sum of…
It is well known that the Catalan number C_n counts dissections of a regular (n+2)-gon into triangles. Here we count such dissections by number of triangles that contain two sides of the polygon among their three edges, leading to a combinatorial interpretation of the identity C_n =sum_{1<=k<=n/2} 2^{n-2k} n-choose-2k C_k (k(n+2))/(n(n-1)), and illustrating its connection with Touchard's identity.
It is shown that Bernoulli numbers and tangent numbers (the derivatives of the tangent function at zero) can be obtained by means of easily defined triangles of numbers in several ways, some of them very similar to the Catalan triangle and a Motzkin-like triangle. Our starting point in order to show this is a new expression of Zeta(2n) involving Motzkin paths.
We prove two conjectures on sums of products of Catalan triangle numbers, which were originally conjectured by Miana, Ohtsuka, and Romero [Discrete Math. 340 (2017), 2388--2397]. The first one is proved by using Zeilberger's algorithm, and the second one is proved by establishing its $q$-analogue.
The Fuss-Catalan numbers are a generalization of the Catalan numbers. They enumerate a large class of objects and in particular m-Dyck paths and m+1-ary trees. Recently, F. Bergeron defined an analogue for generic m of the Tamari order on classical Dyck words. The author and J.-Y. Thibon showed that the combinatorial Hopf algebras related to these m-Tamari orders are defined thanks to the same monoid, the sylvester monoid, as in the m=1 case and that all related Hopf algebras also have m analogues. We present here the m-generalization of another construction on Catalan sets: the dendriform alg…
The Catalan numbers $C_k$ were first studied by Euler, in the context of enumerating triangulations of polygons $P_{k+2}$. Among the many generalizations of this sequence, the Fuss-Catalan numbers $C^{(d)}_k$ count enumerations of dissections of polygons $P_{k(d-1)+2}$ into $(d+1)$-gons. In this paper, we provide a formula enumerating polygonal dissections of $(n+2)$-gons, classified by partitions $λ$ of $[n]$. We connect these counts $a_λ$ to reverse series arising from iterated polynomials. Generalizing this further, we show that the coefficients of the reverse series of polynomials $x=z-\su…
A generalization of the Bethe ansatz equations is studied, where a scalar two-particle S-matrix has several zeroes and poles in the complex plane, as opposed to the ordinary single pole/zero case. For the repulsive case (no complex roots), the main result is the enumeration of all distinct solutions to the Bethe equations in terms of the Fuss-Catalan numbers. Two new combinatorial interpretations of the Fuss-Catalan and related numbers are obtained. On the one hand, they count regular orbits of the permutation group in certain factor modules over Z^M, and on the other hand, they count integer …
We continue the study of the nonkissing complex that was introduced by Petersen, Pylyavskyy, and Speyer and was studied lattice-theoretically by the second author. We introduce a theory of Grid-Catalan combinatorics, given the initial data of a nonkissing complex, and show how this theory parallels the well-known Coxeter-Catalan combinatorics. In particular, we present analogues of Chapoton's F-triangle, H-triangle, and M-triangle and give combinatorial, lattice-theoretic, and geometric interpretations of the objects defining these. In our Grid-Catalan setting, we prove that Chapoton's F-trian…
The binomial coefficients and Catalan triangle numbers appear as weight multiplicities of the finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras and affine Kac--Moody algebras. We prove that any binomial coefficient can be written as weighted sums along rows of the Catalan triangle. The coefficients in the sums form a triangular array, which we call the alternating Jacobsthal triangle. We study various subsequences of the entries of the alternating Jacobsthal triangle and show that they arise in a variety of combinatorial constructions. The generating functions of these sequences enable us to define their…
We provide a context around a conjectured closed form for the Hankel transform of linear combinations of consecutive pairs of Catalan numbers. This generalizes the formula for the Hankel transforms of the shifted Catalan numbers and the known results for linear combinations of pairs of Catalan numbers. Many interesting number triangles emerge, some of which we analyze using the language of Riordan arrays.
This article introduces and investigates a refinement of alternating sign trapezoids by means of Catalan objects and Motzkin paths. Alternating sign trapezoids are a generalisation of alternating sign triangles, which were recently introduced by Ayyer, Behrend and Fischer. We show that the number of alternating sign trapezoids associated with a Catalan object (resp. Motzkin path) is a polynomial function in the length of the shorter base of the trapezoid. We also study the rational roots of the polynomials and formulate several conjectures and derive some partial results. Lastly, we deduce a c…
We present a parametric family of Riordan arrays which are obtained by multiplying any Riordan array with a generalized Pascal array. In particular, we focus on some interesting properties of one-parameter Catalan triangles. We obtain several combinatorial identities that involve two special Catalan matrices, the Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind, some periodic sequences, and the Fibonacci numbers.
To a crystallographic root system Φ, and a positive integer k, there are associated two Fuss-Catalan objects, the set of nonnesting partitions NN^(k)(Φ), and the cluster complex Δ^(k)(Φ). These posess a number of enumerative coincidences, many of which are captured in a surprising identity, first conjectured by Chapoton for k=1 and later generalized to k>1 by Armstrong. We prove this conjecture, obtaining some structural and enumerative results on NN^(k)(Φ) along the way, including an earlier conjecture by Fomin and Reading giving a refined enumeration by Fuß-Narayana numbers.
By using the Newton interpolation formula, we generalize the recent identities on the Catalan triangle obtained by Miana and Romero as well as those of Chen and Chu. We further study divisibility properties of sums of products of binomial coefficients and an odd power of a natural number. For example, we prove that for all positive integers $n_1, ..., n_m$, $n_{m+1}=n_1$, and any nonnegative integer $r$, the expression $$n_1^{-1}{n_1+n_{m}\choose n_1}^{-1} \sum_{k=1}^{n_1}k^{2r+1}\prod_{i=1}^{m} {n_i+n_{i+1}\choose n_i+k}$$ is either an integer or a half-integer. Moreover, several related conj…
