Generalized Catalan numbers from hypergraphs (Q2656907)

Summary: The Catalan numbers \((C_n)_{n\geqslant 0}=1,1,2,5,14,42,\ldots\) form one of the most venerable sequences in combinatorics. They have many combinatorial interpretations, from counting bracketings of products in non-associative algebra to counting plane trees and noncrossing set partitions. They also arise in the GUE matrix model as the leading coefficient of certain polynomials, a connection closely related to the plane trees and noncrossing set partitions interpretations. In this paper we define a generalization of the Catalan numbers. In fact we actually define an infinite collection of generalizations \(C_n^{(m)}\), \(m\geqslant 1\), with \(m=1\) giving the usual Catalans. The sequence \(C_n^{(m)}\) comes from studying certain matrix models attached to hypergraphs. We also give some combinatorial interpretations of these numbers, and conjecture some asymptotics.