On a Two-Parameter Family of Generalizations of Pascal's Triangle

MaRDI QIDQ6409633arXivFDO

Authors Michael A. Allen

Publication date 3 September 2022

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Exact enumeration problems, generating functions (05A15) Factorials, binomial coefficients, combinatorial functions (05A10) Combinatorial identities, bijective combinatorics (05A19) Fibonacci and Lucas numbers and polynomials and generalizations (11B39) Binomial coefficients; factorials; (q)-identities (11B65)

Abstract: We consider a two-parameter family of triangles whose $(n,k)$-th entry (counting the initial entry as the $(0,0)$-th entry) is the number of tilings of $N$-boards (which are linear arrays of $N$ unit square cells for any nonnegative integer $N$) with unit squares and $(1,m-1;t)$-combs for some fixed $m=1,2,dots$ and $t=2,3,dots$ that use $n$ tiles in total of which $k$ are combs. A $(1,m-1;t)$-comb is a tile composed of $t$ unit square sub-tiles (referred to as teeth) placed so that each tooth is separated from the next by a gap of width $m-1$. We show that the entries in the triangle are coefficients of the product of two consecutive generalized Fibonacci polynomials each raised to some nonnegative integer power. We also present a bijection between the tiling of an $(n+(t-1)m)$-board with $k$ $(1,m-1;t)$-combs with the remaining cells filled with squares and the $k$-subsets of $1,ldots,n$ such that no two elements of the subset differ by a multiple of $m$ up to $(t-1)m$. We can therefore give a combinatorial proof of how the number of such $k$-subsets is related to the coefficient of a polynomial. We also derive a recursion relation for the number of closed walks from a particular node on a class of directed pseudographs and apply it obtain an identity concerning the $m=2$, $t=5$ instance of the family of triangles. Further identities of the triangles are also established mostly via combinatorial proof.

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