In the first part of this paper, we enumerate exactly walks on the square lattice that start from the origin, but otherwise avoid the non positive horizontal half-axis. We call them "walks on the slit plane". We count them by their length, and by the coordinates of their endpoint. The corresponding three variable generating function is algebraic of degree 8. Moreover, for any point (i,j), the length generating function for walks of this type ending at (i,j) is also algebraic, of degree 2 or 4, and involves the famous Catalan numbers. Our method is based on the solution of a functional equation, established via a simple combinatorial argument. It actually works for more general models, in which walks take their steps in a finite subset of Z^2 satisfying two simple conditions. The corresponding generating functions are always algebraic. In the second part of the paper, we derive from our enumerative results a number of probabilistic corollaries. For instance, we can compute exactly the probability that an ordinary random walk starting from (i,j) hits for the first time the horizontal half-axis at position (k,0), for any triple (i,j,k). This generalizes a question raised by R. Kenyon, which was the starting point of this paper. Taking uniformly at random all n-step walks on the slit plane, we also compute the probability that they visit a given point (k,0), and the average number of visits to this point. In other words, we quantify the transience of the walks. Finally, we derive an explicit limit law for the coordinates of their endpoint.
Consider a single walker on the slit plane, that is, the square grid Z^2 without its negative x-axis, who starts at the origin and takes his steps from a given set S. Mireille Bousquet-Melou conjectured that -- excluding pathological cases -- the generating function counting the number of possible walks is algebraic if and only if the walker cannot cross the negative x-axis without touching it. In this paper we prove a special case of her conjecture.
We study a model of two polymers confined to a slit with sticky walls. More precisely, we find and analyse the exact solution of two directed friendly walks in such a geometry on the square lattice. We compare the infinite slit limit, in which the length of the polymer (thermodynamic limit) is taken to infinity before the width of the slit is considered to become large, to the opposite situation where the order of the limits are swapped, known as the half-plane limit when one polymer is modelled. In contrast with the single polymer system we find that the half-plane and infinite slit limits co…
We unify and extend previous bijections on plane quadrangulations to bipartite and quasibipartite plane maps. Starting from a bipartite plane map with a distinguished edge and two distinguished corners (in the same face or in two different faces), we build a new plane map with a distinguished vertex and two distinguished half-edges directed toward the vertex. The faces of the new map have the same degree as those of the original map, except at the locations of the distinguished corners, where each receives an extra degree. The idea behind this bijection is to build a path from the distinguishe…
We count a large class of lattice paths by using factorizations of free monoids. Besides the classical lattice paths counting problems related to Catalan numbers, we give a new approach to the problem of counting walks on the slit plane (walks avoid a half line) that was first solved by Bousquet-Mélou and Schaeffer. We also solve a problem about walks in the half plane avoiding a half line by subsequently applying the factorizations of two different Gessel pairs, giving a generalization of a result of Bousquet-Mélou.
Let $a_{i,j}(n)$ denote the number of walks in $n$ steps from $(0,0)$ to $(i,j)$, with steps $(\pm 1,0)$ and $(0,\pm 1)$, never touching a point $(-k,0)$ with $k\ge 0$ after the starting point. \bous and Schaeffer conjectured a closed form for the number $a_{-i,i}(2n)$ when $i\ge 1$. In this paper, we prove their conjecture, and give a formula for $a_{-i,i}(2n)$ for $i\le -1$.
In this paper, we study the problem of finding the probability that the two-dimensional (biased) monotonic random walk crosses the line $y=αx+d$, where $α,d \geq 0$. A $β$-biased monotonic random walk moves from $(a,b)$ to $(a+1,b)$ or $(a,b+1)$ with probabilities $1/(β+ 1)$ and $β/(β+ 1)$, respectively. Among our results, we show that if $β\geq \lceil α\rceil$, then the $β$-biased monotonic random walk, starting from the origin, crosses the line $y=αx+d$ for all $d\geq 0$ with probability 1.
We propose a new approach for finding discrete harmonic functions in the quarter plane with Dirichlet conditions. It is based on solving functional equations that are satisfied by the generating functions of the values taken by the harmonic functions. As a first application of our results, we obtain a simple expression for the harmonic function that governs the asymptotic tail distribution of the first exit time for random walks from the quarter plane. As another corollary, we prove, in the zero drift case, the uniqueness of the discrete harmonic function.
In this note, we consider random walks in the quarter plane with arbitrary big jumps. We announce the extension to that class of models of the analytic approach of [G. Fayolle, R. Iasnogorodski, and V. Malyshev, Random walks in the quarter plane, Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1999)], initially valid for walks with small steps in the quarter plane. New technical challenges arise, most of them being tackled in the framework of generalized boundary value problems on compact Riemann surfaces.
This short note gives a bijection between quarter plane walks using the steps $\{\rightarrow, \searrow, \downarrow, \leftarrow, \nwarrow, \uparrow\}$ and bicoloured Motzkin paths.
This work considers lattice walks restricted to the quarter plane, with steps taken from a set of cardinality three. We present a complete classification of the generating functions of these walks with respect to the classes algebraic, transcendental holonomic and non-holonomic. The principal results are a new algebraic class related to Kreweras' walks; two new non-holonomic classes; and enumerative data on some other classes. These results provide strong evidence for conjectures which use combinatorial criteria to classify the generating functions all nearest neighbour walks in the quarter pl…
We give a general construction of triangulations starting from a walk in the quarter plane with small steps, which is a discrete version of the mating of trees. We use a special instance of this construction to give a bijection between maps equipped with a rooted spanning tree and walks in the quarter plane. We also show how the construction allows to recover several known bijections between such objects in a uniform way.
We present two classes of random walks restricted to the quarter plane whose generating function is not holonomic. The non-holonomy is established using the iterated kernel method, a recent variant of the kernel method. This adds evidence to a recent conjecture on combinatorial properties of walks with holonomic generating functions. The method also yields an asymptotic expression for the number of walks of length n.
We develop a theory of the field of double Laurent series, iterated Laurent series, and Malcev-Neumann series that applies to most constant term evaluation problems. These include (i) MacMahon's partition analysis, counting solutions of systems of linear Diophantine equations or inequalities, counting the number of lattice points in convex polytopes, (ii) evaluating combinatorial sums and their generating functions, and proving combinatorial identities, and (iii) lattice path enumeration such as walks on the slit plane and walks on the quarter plane. In the general setting of this new theory, …
In this article, we study the enumeration by length of several walk models on the square lattice. We obtain bijections between walks in the upper half-plane returning to the $x$-axis and walks in the quarter plane. A recent work by Bostan, Chyzak, and Mahboubi has given a bijection for models using small north, west, and south-east steps. We adapt and generalize it to a bijection between half-plane walks using those three steps in two colours and a quarter-plane model over the symmetrized step set consisting of north, north-west, west, south, south-east, and east. We then generalize our biject…
We use Galois theory of difference equations to study the nature of the generating series of (weighted) walks in the quarter plane with genus zero kernel curve. Using this approach, we prove that the generating series do not satisfy any nontrivial (possibly nonlinear) algebraic differential equation with rational coefficients.
We extend the classification of nearest neighbour walks in the quarter plane to models in which multiplicities are attached to each direction in the step set. Our study leads to a small number of infinite families that completely characterize all the models whose associated group is D4, D6, or D8. These families cover all the models with multiplicites 0, 1, 2, or 3, which were experimentally found to be D-finite --- with three noteworthy exceptions.
In this article we obtain new expressions for the generating functions counting (non-singular) walks with small steps in the quarter plane. Those are given in terms of infinite series, while in the literature, the standard expressions use solutions to boundary value problems. We illustrate our results with three examples (an algebraic case, a transcendental D-finite case, and an infinite group model).
In the present paper, we introduce a new approach, relying on the Galois theory of difference equations, to study the nature of the generating series of walks in the quarter plane. Using this approach, we are not only able to recover many of the recent results about these series, but also to go beyond them. For instance, we give for the first time hypertranscendency results, {\it i.e.}, we prove that certain of these generating series do not satisfy any nontrivial nonlinear algebraic differential equation with rational coefficients.
This paper is the first application of the compensation approach to counting problems. We discuss how this method can be applied to a general class of walks in the quarter plane $Z_{+}^{2}$ with a step set that is a subset of $\{(-1,1),(-1,0),(-1,-1),(0,-1),(1,-1)\}$ in the interior of $Z_{+}^{2}$. We derive an explicit expression for the counting generating function, which turns out to be meromorphic and nonholonomic, can be easily inverted, and can be used to obtain asymptotic expressions for the counting coefficients.
Enumeration of interval-closed sets via Motzkin paths and quarter-plane walks
Dartmouth College（达特茅斯学院）；Concordia University（康考迪亚大学）；The George Washington University（乔治华盛顿大学）；Willamette University（威拉米特大学）；North Dakota State University（北达科他州立大学）；Eastern Illinois University（东伊利诺伊大学）
We refine necessary and sufficient conditions for the generating series of a weighted model of a quarter plane walk to be differentially algebraic. In addition, we give algorithms based on the theory of Mordell-Weil lattices, that, for each weighted model, yield polynomial conditions on the weights determining this property of the associated generating series.
The set of random walks with different step sets (of short steps) in the quarter plane has provided a rich set of models that have profoundly different integrability properties. In particular, 23 of the 79 effectively different models can be shown to have generating functions that are algebraic or differentiably finite. Here we investigate how this integrability may change in those 23 models where in addition to length one also counts the number of sites of the walk touching either the horizontal and/or vertical boundaries of the quarter plane. This is equivalent to introducing interactions wi…
We consider inhomogeneous lattice walk models in a half-space and in the quarter plane. For the models in a half-space, we show by a generalization of the kernel method to linear systems of functional equations that their generating functions are always algebraic. For the models in the quarter plane, we have carried out an experimental classification of all models with small steps. We discovered many (apparently) D-finite cases for most of which we have no explanation yet.
We study nearest-neighbors walks on the two-dimensional square lattice, that is, models of walks on $\mathbb{Z}^2$ defined by a fixed step set that is a subset of the non-zero vectors with coordinates 0, 1 or $-1$. We concern ourselves with the enumeration of such walks starting at the origin and constrained to remain in the quarter plane $\mathbb{N}^2$, counted by their length and by the position of their ending point. Bousquet-Mélou and Mishna [Contemp. Math., pp. 1--39, Amer. Math. Soc., 2010] identified 19 models of walks that possess a D-finite generating function; linear differential equ…
Relations between the mean values of distributions of flipped spins on periodic Heisenberg XX chain and some aspects of enumerative combinatorics are discussed. The Bethe vectors, which are the state-vectors of the model, are considered both as on- and off-shell. It is this approach that makes it possible to represent and to study the correlation functions in the form of non-intersecting nests of lattice walks and related plane partitions. We distinguish between two types of walkers, namely lock step models and random turns. Of particular interest is the connection of random turns walks and a …
