Fuss-Catalan numbers in noncommutative probability (Q612867)

Let \(p,r \in \mathbb{R}\). The Fuss-Catalan numbers \(A_m(p,r)\) (\(m\in \mathbb{N}\)) are given by the formula \(A_m(p,r) = \frac{r}{m!} \prod_{i=1}^{m-1} (mp+r-i)\). In particular for \(p=2\), \(r=1\) we obtain the usual Catalan numbers, known to arise as moments of the Marchenko-Pastur distribution. The author proves that if \(p\geq 1\) and \(r \in [0,p]\) then the sequence \((A_m(p,r))_{m=1}^{\infty}\) is the moment sequence of a compactly supported probability measure on \(\mathbb{R}_+\). The proof exploits combinatorial formulas connecting Fuss-Catalan numbers for different values of parameters \(p\) and \(r\) to show that the associated functionals on the space of polynomials are related by the operations corresponding to noncommutative convolutions (such as Boolean, monotonic, free additive and multiplicative convolutions). This, together with the fact that the class of moment sequences of probability measures is stable under these operations, makes it possible to deduce the general result from the previously known special cases and also to establish some properties of the associated measures. Considering the dilations of measures studied in the first part of the paper the author shows also that the sequence \((\frac{m^m}{m!})_{m=1}^{\infty}\) is positive definite and the corresponding measure is infinitely divisible with respect to the free multiplicative convolution.