An extension of the Bell polynomials (Q1767789)

The authors introduce an extension of Bell polynomials, also called ``partition polynomials''. For a given integer \(M\) they define a generalized Bell polynomial \(Y_n^{[M-1]}\) as representing the \(n\)th derivative of the composite function \(\Phi(t) := f_{(1)}(f_{(2)}(\cdots(f_{(M)}(t))))\), where the functions \(f_{(M)}\), \dots, \(f_{(2)}\), \(f_{(1)}\) are \(n\) times differentiable with respect to the relevant independent variables. They recover the classical Bell polynomials [cf. \textit{J. Riordan}, An introduction to combinatorial analysis. New York: Wiley (1958; Zbl 0078.00805)] for \(M=2\). The second-order Bell polynomials \(Y_3^{[2]}\) are expressed in function of the ordinary Bell polynomials. The authors obtain recurrence relations and generalized Faà di Bruno formulas for the second-order and for the general Bell polynomials.