Several new transformations for q-binomial coefficients are found, which have the special feature that the kernel is a polynomial with nonnegative coefficients. By studying the group-like properties of these positivity preserving transformations, as well as their connection with the Bailey lemma, many new summation and transformation formulas for basic hypergeometric series are found. The new q-binomial transformations are also applied to obtain multisum Rogers--Ramanujan identities, to find new representations for the Rogers--Szego polynomials, and to make some progress on Bressoud's generalized Borwein conjecture. For the original Borwein conjecture we formulate a refinement based on a new triple sum representations of the Borwein polynomials.
We give a combinatorial interpretation of a certain positivity conjecture of Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson classes, as stated by P. Aluffi and the author in a previous paper. It translates into a positivity property for a sum of p by p determinants consisting of binomial coefficients, generalizing the classical Theorem of Lindstrom-Gessel-Viennot et al. which computes these determinants in terms of non-intersecting lattice paths. We prove this conjecture for p=2,3.
F. Bergeron recently asked the intriguing question whether $\binom{b+c}{b}_q -\binom{a+d}{d}_q$ has nonnegative coefficients as a polynomial in $q$, whenever $a,b,c,d$ are positive integers, $a$ is the smallest, and $ad=bc$. We conjecture that, in fact, this polynomial is also always unimodal, and combinatorially show our conjecture for $a\le 3$ and any $b,c\ge 4$. The main ingredient will be a novel (and rather technical) application of Zeilberger's KOH theorem.
We find a combinatorial interpretation of Shareshian and Wachs' $q$-binomial-Eulerian polynomials, which leads to an alternative proof of their $q$-$γ$-positivity using group actions. Motivated by the sign-balance identity of Désarménien--Foata--Loday for the $(\mathrm{des}, \mathrm{inv})$-Eulerian polynomials, we further investigate the sign-balance of the $q$-binomial-Eulerian polynomials. We show the unimodality of the resulting signed binomial-Eulerian polynomials by exploiting their continued fraction expansion and making use of a new quadratic recursion for the $q$-binomial-Eulerian poly…
An identity of Chung, Graham and Knuth involving binomial coefficients and Eulerian numbers motivates our study of a class of polynomials that we call binomial-Eulerian polynomials. These polynomials share several properties with the Eulerian polynomials. For one thing, they are $h$-polynomials of simplicial polytopes, which gives a geometric interpretation of the fact that they are palindromic and unimodal. A formula of Foata and Schützenberger shows that the Eulerian polynomials have a stronger property, namely $γ$-positivity, and a formula of Postnikov, Reiner and Williams does the same for…
We first prove that if $a$ has a prime factor not dividing $b$ then there are infinitely many positive integers $n$ such that $\binom {an+bn} {an}$ is not divisible by $bn+1$. This confirms a recent conjecture of Z.-W. Sun. Moreover, we provide some new divisibility properties of binomial coefficients: for example, we prove that $\binom {12n} {3n}$ and $\binom {12n} {4n}$ are divisible by $6n-1$, and that $\binom {330n} {88n}$ is divisible by $66n-1$, for all positive integers $n$. As we show, the latter results are in fact consequences of divisibility and positivity results for quotients of $…
The $q$-binomial coefficients $\qbinom{n}{m}=\prod_{i=1}^m(1-q^{n-m+i})/(1-q^i)$, for integers $0\le m\le n$, are known to be polynomials with non-negative integer coefficients. This readily follows from the $q$-binomial theorem, or the many combinatorial interpretations of $\qbinom{n}{m}$. In this note we conjecture an arithmetically motivated generalisation of the non-negativity property for products of ratios of $q$-factorials that happen to be polynomials.
Binomial Eulerian polynomials first appeared in work of Postnikov, Reiner and Williams on the face enumeration of generalized permutohedra. They are $γ$-positive (in particular, palindromic and unimodal) polynomials which can be interpreted as $h$-polynomials of certain flag simplicial polytopes and which admit interesting Schur $γ$-positive symmetric function generalizations. This paper introduces analogues of these polynomials for $r$-colored permutations with similar properties and uncovers some new instances of equivariant $γ$-positivity in geometric combinatorics.
Ismail et al. (Constr. Approx. {\bf 15} (1999) 69--81) proved the positivity of some trigonometric polynomials with single binomial coefficients. In this paper, we prove some similar results by replacing the binomial coefficients with products of two binomial coefficients.
We consider some multivariate rational functions which have (or are conjectured to have) only positive coefficients in their series expansion. We consider an operator that preserves positivity of series coefficients, and apply the inverse of this operator to the rational functions. We obtain new rational functions which seem to have only positive coefficients, whose positivity would imply positivity of the original series, and which, in a certain sense, cannot be improved any further.
We study polynomial generalizations of the Kontsevich automorphisms acting on the skew-field of formal rational expressions in two non-commuting variables. Our main result is the Laurentness and pseudo-positivity of iterations of these automorphisms. The resulting expressions are described combinatorially using a generalization of the combinatorics of compatible pairs in a maximal Dyck path developed by Lee, Li, and Zelevinsky. By specializing to quasi-commuting variables we obtain pseudo-positive expressions for rank 2 quantum generalized cluster variables. In the binomial case when all inter…
For all positive integers n, we prove the following divisibility properties: $$(2n+3){2n\choose n} | 3{6n\choose 3n}{3n\choose n}, and (10n+3){3n\choose n} | 21{15n\choose 5n} {5n\choose n}.$$ This confirms two recent conjectures of Z.-W. Sun. Some similar divisibility properties are given. Moreover, we show that, for all positive integers m and n, the product $am{am+bm-1\choose am}{an+bn\choose an}$ is divisible by m+n. In fact, the latter result can be generalized to the q-binomial coefficients and q-integers case, which generalizes the positivity of q-Catalan numbers. We also propose severa…
We prove a recent conjecture of Lassalle about positivity and integrality of coefficients in some polynomial expansions. We also give a combinatorial interpretation of those numbers. Finally, we show that this question is closely related to the fundamental problem of calculating the linearization coefficients for binomial coefficients.
Log-concavity and almost log-convexity of the cycle index polynomials were proved by Bender and Canfield [J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 74 (1996)]. Schirmacher [J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 85 (1999)] extended them to $q$-log-concavity and almost $q$-log-convexity. Motivated by these, we consider the stronger properties total positivity from the Toeplitz matrix and Hankel matrix. By using exponential Riordan array methods, we give some criteria for total positivity of the triangular matrix of coefficients of the generalized cycle index polynomials, the Toeplitz matrix and Hankel matrix of the polynomia…
