Lattice paths and Faber polynomials (Q4353152)

The Faber polynomials have been introduced in the theory of univalent functions, and are defined as follows: for each \(r\geq 1\), \(F_r\) is the unique polynomial of degree \(r\) in \(x\), such that the formal Laurent series \(F(f(t))\), where \(f(t)= t+f_0+ f_1/t+ f_2/t^2+\cdots\) has only one term of nonnegative degree in \(t\) (namely \(t^r\)). In this paper, Faber polynomials are used to give generating functions for the number of solutions to some generalizations of the ballot problem. More precisely, let \(r>0\), and \(k,n\geq 0\). Call \(s_1,\dots,s_n\), a sequence of integers \(\leq 1\), good if it is such that \(r+ s_1+\cdots+ s_i\geq 0\) for all \(i\leq n\) and \(r+ s_1+\cdots+ s_n=k\). Assigning the weight \(f_{s_1}\cdots f_{s_n}\) to such a sequence, it is proved that the weighted sum of good sequences is equal to the coefficient of \(t^k\) in the expansion of \({t\over r}{d\over dt} F_r(f)/(1- f)\). For the entire collection see [Zbl 0865.00053].