We introduce a transformation of finite integer sequences, show that every sequence eventually stabilizes under this transformation and that the number of fixed points is counted by the Catalan numbers. The sequences that are fixed are precisely those that describe themselves -- every term $t$ is equal to the number of previous terms that are smaller than $t$. In addition, we provide an easy way to enumerate all these self-describing sequences by organizing them in a Catalan tree with a specific labelling system.
We compute the expansion of the Catalan family of Lie idempotents introduced in [Menous et al., Adv. Applied Math. 51 (2013), 177-22] on the PBW basis of the Lie module. It is found that the coefficient of a tree depends only on its number of left and right internal edges. In particular, the Catalan idempotents belong to a preLie algebra based on naked binary trees, of which we identify several Lie and preLie subalgebras.
In this note, we provide a bijection between a new collection of words on nonnegative integers of length n and Dyck paths of length 2n-2, thus proving that this collection belongs to the Catalan family. The surprising key step in this bijection is the zeta map which is an important map in the study of q,t-Catalan numbers. Finally we discuss an alternative approach to this new collection of words using two statistics on planted trees that turn out to be closely related to the Tutte polynomial on the Catalan matroid.
We study a certain family of infinite series with reciprocal Catalan numbers. We first evaluate two special candidates of the family in closed form, where we also present some Catalan-Fibonacci relations. Then we focus on the general properties of the family and prove explicit formulas, including two types of integral representations.
Recently, a new class of words, denoted by L_n, was shown to be in bijection with a subset of the Dyck paths of length 2n having cardinality given by the (n-1)-st Catalan number. Here, we consider statistics on L_n recording the number of occurrences of a letter i. In the cases i = 0 and i = 1, we are able to determine explicit expressions for the number of members of L_n containing a given number of zeros or ones, which generalizes the prior result. To do so, we make use of recurrences to derive a functional equation satisfied by the generating function, which we solve by a new method employi…
We consider Catalan-pair graphs, a family of graphs that can be viewed as representing certain interactions between pairs of objects which are enumerated by the Catalan numbers. In this paper we study random Catalan-pair graphs and deduce various properties of these random graphs. In particular, we asymptotically determine the expected number of edges and isolated vertices, and more generally we determine the expected number of (induced) subgraphs isomorphic to a given connected graph.
We prove that the inverse of the Hankel matrix of the reciprocals of the Catalan numbers has integer entries. We generalize the result to an infinite family of generalized Catalan numbers. The Hankel matrices that we consider are associated with orthogonal polynomials that are variants of Jacobi polynomials. Our proofs use these polynomials and computer algebra based on Wilf-Zeilberger theory.
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.
We show that the Catalan-Schroeder convolution recurrences and their higher order generalizations can be solved using Riordan arrays and the Catalan numbers. We investigate the Hankel transforms of many of the recurrence solutions, and indicate that Somos $4$ sequences often arise. We exhibit relations between recurrences, Riordan arrays, elliptic curves and Somos $4$ sequences. We furthermore indicate how one can associate a family of orthogonal polynomials to a point on an elliptic curve, whose moments are related to recurrence solutions.
In "Square partitions and Catalan numbers" (arXiv0912.4983), Bennett et al. presented a recursive algorithm to create a family of partitions from one or several partitions. They were mainly interested in the cases when we begin with a single square partition or with several partitions with only one part. The cardinalities of those families of partitions are the Catalan and ballot numbers, respectively. In this paper we present a closed description for those families. We also present bijections between those sets of partitions and sets of trees and forests enumerated by the Catalan an ballot nu…
Motivated by a formula of A. Postnikov relating binary trees, we define the hook length polynomials for m-ary trees and plane forests, and show that these polynomials have a simple binomial expression. An integer value of this expression is C_{k,m}(n)=\frac{1}{mn+1}{(mn+1)k \choose n}, which we call the (k,m)-Catalan number. For proving the hook length formulas, we also introduce a combinatorial family, (k,m)-ary trees, which are counted by the (k,m)-Catalan numbers.
In this work, we consider a class of substitutions on infinite alphabets and show that they exhibit a growth behaviour which is impossible for substitutions on finite alphabets. While for both settings the leading term of the tile counting function is exponential (and guided by the inflation factor), the behaviour of the second-order term is strikingly different. For the finite setting, it is known that the second term is also exponential or exponential times a polynomial. We exhibit a large family of examples where the second term is at least exponential in $n$ divided by half-integer powers …
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.
In this paper, we consider two sets of pattern-avoiding ascent sequences: those avoiding both 201 and 210 and those avoiding 0021. In each case we show that the number of such ascent sequences is given by the binomial convolution of the Catalan numbers. The result for $\{201, 210\}$-avoiders completes a family of results given by Baxter and the current author in a previous paper. The result for 0021-avoiders, together with previous work of Duncan, Steingrímsson, Mansour, and Shattuck, completes the Wilf classification of single patterns of length 4 for ascent sequences.
The Catalan numbers form a sequence that counts over 200 combinatorial objects. A remarkable property of the Catalan numbers, which extends to these objects, is its recursive definition; that is, we can determine the $n^{th}$ object from previous ones. Matroids are combinatorial objects that generalize the notion of linear independence and have connections with other fields of mathematics. A family of matroids, called unit interval positroids (UIP), are Catalan objects induced by the antiadjacency matrices of unit interval orders. Associated to each UIP is the set of externally ordered bases, …
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…
We define a family of maps on lattice paths, called sweep maps, that assign levels to each step in the path and sort steps according to their level. Surprisingly, although sweep maps act by sorting, they appear to be bijective in general. The sweep maps give concise combinatorial formulas for the q,t-Catalan numbers, the higher q,t-Catalan numbers, the q,t-square numbers, and many more general polynomials connected to the nabla operator and rational Catalan combinatorics. We prove that many algorithms that have appeared in the literature (including maps studied by Andrews, Egge, Gorsky, Haglun…
Recent work of the first author, Negut and Rasmussen, and of Oblomkov and Rozansky in the context of Khovanov--Rozansky knot homology produces a family of polynomials in $q$ and $t$ labeled by integer sequences. These polynomials can be expressed as equivariant Euler characteristics of certain line bundles on flag Hilbert schemes. The $q,t$-Catalan numbers and their rational analogues are special cases of this construction. In this paper, we give a purely combinatorial treatment of these polynomials and show that in many cases they have nonnegative integer coefficients. For sequences of length…
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…
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.
We study a family of sequences $c_n(a_2,\ldots,a_r)$, where $r\ge2$ and $a_2,\ldots,a_r$ are real parameters. We find a sufficient condition for positive definiteness of the sequence $c_n(a_2,\ldots,a_r)$ and check several examples from OEIS. We also study relations of these sequences with the free and monotonic convolution.
The Catalan numbers are well-known to be the answer to many different counting problems, and so there are many different families of sets whose cardinalities are the Catalan numbers. We show how such a family can be given the structure of a simplicial set. We show how the low-dimensional parts of this simplicial set classify, in a precise sense, the structures of monoid and of monoidal category. This involves aspects of combinatorics, algebraic topology, quantum groups, logic, and category theory.
The first problem addressed by this article is the enumeration of some families of pattern-avoiding inversion sequences. We solve some enumerative conjectures left open by the foundational work on the topics by Corteel et al., some of these being also solved independently by Lin, and Kim and Lin. The strength of our approach is its robustness: we enumerate four families $F_1 \subset F_2 \subset F_3 \subset F_4$ of pattern-avoiding inversion sequences ordered by inclusion using the same approach. More precisely, we provide a generating tree (with associated succession rule) for each family $F_i…
Parking Cascades: From the Simplest Sequence to Motzkin and Catalan
Fitchburg State University（菲奇堡州立大学）；Missouri Western State University（密苏里西部州立大学）；University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee（威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校）；Hollins University（霍金斯大学）；University of Colorado Denver（科罗拉多大学丹佛分校）
We will look at the Catalan numbers from the {\it Rigged Configurations} point of view originated \cite{Kir} from an combinatorial analysis of the Bethe Ansatz Equations associated with the higher spin anisotropic Heisenberg models . Our strategy is to take a combinatorial interpretation of Catalan numbers $C_n$ as the number of standard Young tableaux of rectangular shape $(n^2)$, or equivalently, as the Kostka number $K_{(n^2),1^{2n}}$, as the starting point of research. We observe that the rectangular (or multidimensional) Catalan numbers $ C(m,n)$ introduced and studied by P. MacMahon \cit…
For each integer $k\ge 1$, we define an algorithm which associates to a partition whose maximal value is at most $k$ a certain subset of all partitions. In the case when we begin with a partition $λ$ which is square, i.e $λ=λ_1\ge...\geλ_k>0$, and $λ_1=k,λ_k=1$, then applying the algorithm $\ell$ times gives rise to a set whose cardinality is either the Catalan number $c_{\ell-k+1}$ (the self dual case) or twice the Catalan number. The algorithm defines a tree and we study the propagation of the tree, which is not in the isomorphism class of the usual Catalan tree. The algorithm can also be mo…
Additive tree functionals represent the cost of many divide-and-conquer algorithms. We derive the limiting distribution of the additive functionals induced by toll functions of the form (a) n^αwhen α> 0 and (b) log n (the so-called shape functional) on uniformly distributed binary search trees, sometimes called Catalan trees. The Gaussian law obtained in the latter case complements the central limit theorem for the shape functional under the random permutation model. Our results give rise to an apparently new family of distributions containing the Airy distribution (α= 1) and the normal distri…
We introduce a large family of combinatorial objects, called standard puzzles, defined by very simple rules. We focus on the standard puzzles for which the enumeration problems can be solved by explicit formulas or by classical numbers, such as binomial coefficients, Fibonacci numbers, tangent numbers, Catalan numbers, $\ldots$
We investigate the tree gonality of a genus-$g$ metric graph, defined as the minimum degree of a tropical morphism from any tropical modification of the metric graph to a metric tree. We give a combinatorial constructive proof that this number is at most $\lceil g/2 \rceil + 1$, a fact whose proofs so far required an algebro-geometric detour via special divisors on curves. For even genus, the tropical morphism which realizes the bound belongs to a family of tropical morphisms that is pure of dimension $3g-3$ and that has a generically finite-to-one map onto the moduli space of genus-$g$ metric…
Guibert and Linusson introduced the family of doubly alternating Baxter permutations, i.e. Baxter permutations $σ\in S_n$, such that $σ$ and $σ^{-1}$ are alternating. They proved that the number of such permutations in $S_{2n}$ and $S_{2n+1}$ is the Catalan number $C_n$. In this paper we explore the expected limit shape of such permutations, following the approach by Miner and Pak.
A $k$-plane tree is a plane tree whose vertices are assigned labels between $1$ and $k$ in such a way that the sum of the labels along any edge is no greater than $k+1$. These trees are known to be related to $(k+1)$-ary trees, and they are counted by a generalised version of the Catalan numbers. We prove a surprisingly simple refined counting formula, where we count trees with a prescribed number of labels of each kind. Several corollaries are derived from this formula, and an analogous theorem is proven for $k$-noncrossing trees, a similarly defined family of labelled noncrossing trees that …
Let $\K=\C$, or $\R$, and $S_f$ be the set of points in $\K^n$ at which a polynomial map $f:\K^n\rightarrow\K^n$ is non-proper. Jelonek proved that $S_f$ is a semi-algebraic set that is ruled by polynomial curves, with $\dim S_f\leq n-1$, and provided a method to compute $S_f$ for $\K = \C$. However, such methods do not exist for $\K = \R$. In this paper, we establish a straightforward description of $S_f$ for a large family of non-proper maps $f$ using the Newton polytopes of the polynomials appearing in $f$. Thus resulting in a new method for computing $S_f$ that works for $\K=\R$, and highl…
Given a set of species whose evolution is represented by a species tree, a gene family is a group of genes having evolved from a single ancestral gene. A gene family evolves along the branches of a species tree through various mechanisms, including - but not limited to - speciation, gene duplication, gene loss, horizontal gene transfer. The reconstruction of a gene tree representing the evolution of a gene family constrained by a species tree is an important problem in phylogenomics. However, unlike in the multispecies coalescent evolutionary model, very little is known about the search space …
