On a conjecture of Wilf

DOI10.1016/J.JCTA.2007.01.011MaRDI QIDQ2384576zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Stefan De Wannemacker, Thomas J. Laffey, Robert Osburn

Publication date 10 October 2007

Published in Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Series A (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0608085

zbMATH Keywords

\(p\)-adic series graph theory multiplicative partition function Stirling numbers of the second kind Wilf's conjecture

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Partitions of sets (05A18) Bell and Stirling numbers (11B73) Analytic theory of partitions (11P82)

Abstract: Let n and k be natural numbers and let S(n,k) denote the Stirling numbers of the second kind. It is a conjecture of Wilf that the alternating sum sum_{j=0}^{n} (-1)^{j} S(n,j) is nonzero for all n>2. We prove this conjecture for all n not congruent to 2 and not congruent to 2944838 modulo 3145728 and discuss applications of this result to graph theory, multiplicative partition functions, and the irrationality of p-adic series.

Review text

H. S. Wilf conjectured \(\sum_{k=1}^n (-1)^k S(n,k) \not= 0\) for all \(n > 2\), \(S(n,k)\) are Stirling numbers of the second kind. In this paper the authors prove this conjecture for \(n \not= 2\) and \(\not\equiv 2944838 \bmod 3145728\) and discuss applications to graph theory, multiplicative partition functions, and the irrationality of \(p\)-adic series.

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