Counting Dope Matrices

Abstract: For a polynomial

P

of degree

n

and an

m

-tuple

L a m b d a = (l a m b d a_{1}, d o t s, l a m b d a_{m})

of distinct complex numbers, the dope matrix of

P

with respect to

L a m b d a

is

D_{P} (L a m b d a) = (d e l t a_{i j})_{i i n [1, m], j i n [0, n]}

, where

d e l t a_{i j} = 1

if

P^{(j)} (l a m b d a_{i}) = 0

, and

d e l t a_{i j} = 0

otherwise. Our first result is a combinatorial characterization of the

2

-row dope matrices (for all pairs

L a m b d a

); using this characterization, we solve the associated enumeration problem. We also give upper bounds on the number of

m i m e s (n + 1)

dope matrices, and we show that the number of

m i m e s (n + 1)

dope matrices for a fixed

m

-tuple

L a m b d a

is maximized when

L a m b d a

is generic. Finally, we resolve an ``extension problem of Nathanson and present several open problems.

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