Two identities in the theory of polynomials of binomial type (Q1087876)

The author proves a very general version of Abel's binomial formula. The basic reference for what follows is \textit{G.-C. Rota}, \textit{D. Kahaner} and \textit{A. Odlyzko} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 42, 684-760 (1973; Zbl 0267.05004)]. Let \(\lambda_ 1,...,\lambda_ n\), \(x_ 1,...,x_ n\) be real numbers, \(\lambda (T)=\sum_{i\in T}\lambda_ i\), \(\lambda (\emptyset)=0\), \(\lambda =\lambda_ 1+...+\lambda_ n\), \(x=x_ 1+...+x_ n\). Let P be an invertible shift-invariant polynomial that maps any real polynomial into a polynomial of the same degree. Let \(r(n;x)=P^{-n}x^{n-1}\) for \(n\geq 1\) and \(r(0;x)=x^{-1}\). The main results of the paper are the following identities: \[ \sum \prod^{s}_{i=1}x_ ir(t_ i;x_ i-\lambda (T_ i))=xr(n;x- \lambda); \] \[ \sum r(t_ s+1;x_ s-\lambda (T_ s))\prod^{s- 1}_{i=1}x_ ir(t_ i;x_ i-\lambda (T_ i))=r(n+1;x-\lambda), \] where the sums are over all ordered partitions \((T_ 1,...,T_ s)\) of \(\{\) 1,2,...,n\(\}\) with \(T_ i=\emptyset\) admitted and \(t_ i=| T_ i|.\) For \(P=Id\) we get Hurwitz's generalization of Abel's binomial formula. The author gives an application for an enumeration problem.