On parity unimodality of \(q\)-Catalan polynomials (Q2288164)

Summary: A polynomial \(A(q)=\sum_{i=0}^n a_iq^i\) is said to be unimodal if \(a_0\leqslant a_1\leqslant \cdots \leqslant a_k\geqslant a_{k+1} \geqslant \cdots \geqslant a_n\). We investigate the unimodality of rational \(q\)-Catalan polynomials, which is defined to be \(C_{m,n}(q)= \frac{1}{[n+m]}\begin{bmatrix}m+n\\n\end{bmatrix}_q\) for a coprime pair of positive integers \((m,n)\). We conjecture that they are unimodal with respect to parity, or equivalently, \((1+q)C_{m+n}(q)\) is unimodal. By using generating functions and the constant term method, we verify our conjecture for \(m\le 5\) in a straightforward way.