Bicoloured Dyck paths and the contact polynomial for \(n\) non-intersecting paths in a half-plane lattice (Q1408540)

Summary: In this paper configurations of \(n\) non-intersecting lattice paths which begin and end on the line \(y=0\) and are excluded from the region below this line are considered. Such configurations are called Hankel \(n\)-paths and their contact polynomial is defined by \[ \hat Z^{\mathcal H}_{2r}(n;\kappa)\equiv \sum_{c= 1}^{r+1} |{\mathcal H}_{2r}^{(n)}(c)|\kappa^c \] where \({\mathcal H}_{2r}^{(n)}(c)\) is the set of Hankel \(n\)-paths which make \(c\) intersections with the line \(y=0\) the lowest of which has length \(2r\). These configurations may also be described as parallel Dyck paths. It is found that replacing \(\kappa\) by the length generating function for Dyck paths, \(\kappa(\omega) \equiv \displaystyle\sum_{r=0}^\infty C_r \omega^r\), where \(C_r\) is the \(r\)th Catalan number, results in a remarkable simplification of the coefficients of the contact polynomial. In particular it is shown that the polynomial for configurations of a single Dyck path has the expansion \(\hat Z^{\text{H}}_{2r}(1;\kappa(\omega)) = \displaystyle\sum_{b=0}^\infty C_{r+b}\omega^b\). This result is derived using a bijection between bicoloured Dyck paths and plain Dyck paths. A bicoloured Dyck path is a Dyck path in which each edge is coloured either red or blue with the constraint that the colour can only change at a contact with the line \(y=0\). For \(n>1\), the coefficient of \(\omega^b\) in \(\hat Z^{\text{W}}_{2r}(n;\kappa(\omega))\) is expressed as a determinant of Catalan numbers which has a combinatorial interpretation in terms of a modified class of \(n\) non-intersecting Dyck paths. The determinant satisfies a recurrence relation which leads to the proof of a product form for the coefficients in the \(\omega\) expansion of the contact polynomial.