Catalan's trapezoids (Q2875240)

The paper under review generalises Catalan's triangle, i.e. the lower triangular array of numbers \(C(n,k)\) for integers \(n\geq k\geq 0\) defined by \(C(n,0)=1\) for all \(n\) and \(C(n,k)=C(n-1,k)+C(n,k-1)\). It is easy to see that with this definition \(C(n,n)\) is the Catalan number \(C(n)\). The generalisation is to Catalan trapezoids defined in the following manner. For \(m=1\) Catalan's trapezoid \(C_{1}(n,k)\) is the Catalan triangle \(C(n,k)\) just described. For \(m>1\) we say that in the left-hand column again \(C_{m}(n,0)=1\) and also that \(C_{m}(0,k)=1\) for \(0\leq k\leq m-1\). Corresponding to the lower-triangular condition, we say that \(C_{m}(n,k)=0\) if \(k\geq n+m\). Finally, we say that otherwise \(C_{m}(n,k)=C_{m}(n-1,k)-C_{m}(n,k-1)\). The author shows that there is a closed formula for \(C_{m}(n,k)\) in terms of binomial coefficients and discusses the application of these numbers to certain generalised ballot problems, the asymmetric simple inclusion process in queueing theory and evaluation of certain nested sums.