Disturbing the Dyson conjecture, in a generally GOOD way

Dyson's celebrated constant term conjecture [F.J. Dyson, Statistical theory of the energy levels of complex systems I, J. Math. Phys. 3 (1962) 140-156] states that the constant term in the expansion of _∏1≦i≠j≦naj(1−xi/xj) is the multinomial coefficient (a₁+a₂+?+an)!/(a₁!a₂!?an!). The definitive proof was given by I.J. Good [I.J. Good, Short proof of a conjecture of Dyson, J. Math. Phys. 11 (1970) 1884]. Later, Andrews extended Dyson's conjecture to a q-analog [G.E. Andrews, Problems and prospects for basic hypergeometric functions, in: R. Askey (Ed.), The Theory and Application of Special Functions, Academic Press, New York, 1975, pp. 191-224]. In this paper, closed form expressions are given for the coefficients of several other terms in the Dyson product, and are proved using an extension of Good's idea. Also, conjectures for the corresponding q-analogs are supplied. Finally, perturbed versions of the q-Dixon summation formula are presented.     

The Eulerian generating function of q-derangements

Let F_q denote the finite field with q elements. For nonnegative integers n,k, let d_q(n,k) denote the number of n×nF_q-matrices having k as the sum of the dimensions of the eigenspaces (of the eigenvalues lying in F_q). Let d_q(n)=d_q(n,0), i.e., d_q(n) denotes the number of n×nF_q-matrices having no eigenvalues in F_q. The Eulerian generating function of d_q(n) has been well studied in the last 20 years [Kung, The cycle structure of a linear transformation over a finite field, Linear Algebra Appl. 36 (1981) 141-155, Neumann and Praeger, Derangements and eigenvalue-free elements in finite classical groups, J. London Math. Soc. (2) 58 (1998) 564-586 and Stong, Some asymptotic results on finite vector spaces, Adv. Appl. Math. 9(2) (1988) 167-199]. The main tools have been the rational canonical form, nilpotent matrices, and a q-series identity of Euler. In this paper we take an elementary approach to this problem, based on Möbius inversion, and find the following bivariate generating function:

     

q-Analog of tableau containment

We prove a q-analog of the following result due to McKay, Morse and Wilf: the probability that a random standard Young tableau of size n contains a fixed standard Young tableau of shape λ?k tends to fλ/k! in the large n limit, where fλ is the number of standard Young tableaux of shape λ. We also consider the probability that a random pair (P,Q) of standard Young tableaux of the same shape contains a fixed pair (A,B) of standard Young tableaux.     

On discrete q-ultraspherical polynomials and their duals

A special case of the big q-Jacobi polynomials Pn(x;a,b,c;q), which corresponds to a=b=−c, is shown to satisfy a discrete orthogonality relation for imaginary values of the parameter a (outside of its commonly known domain 0<a<q⁻¹). Since Pn(x;qα,qα,−qα;q) tend to Gegenbauer (or ultraspherical) polynomials in the limit as q→1, this family represents another q-extension of these classical polynomials, different from the continuous q-ultraspherical polynomials of Rogers. For a dual family with respect to the polynomials Pn(x;a,a,−a;q) (i.e., for dual discrete q-ultraspherical polynomials) we also find new orthogonality relations with extremal measures.     

A note on approximation properties of q-Durrmeyer operators

In this paper, the approximation properties of q-Durrmeyer operators D_n,q(f;x) for f∈C[0,1] are discussed. The exact class of continuous functions satisfying approximation process lim_n→∞D_n,q(f;x)=f(x) is determined. The results of the paper provide an elaboration of the previously-known ones on operators D_n,q.     

A family of q-Dyson style constant term identities

By generalizing Gessel-Xin's Laurent series method for proving the Zeilberger-Bressoud q-Dyson Theorem, we establish a family of q-Dyson style constant term identities. These identities give explicit formulas for certain coefficients of the q-Dyson product, including three conjectures of Sills' as special cases and generalizing Stembridge's first layer formulas for characters of SL(n,C).     

Combinatorial interpretations of the q-Faulhaber and q-Salié coefficients

Recently, Guo and Zeng discovered two families of polynomials featuring in a q-analogue of Faulhaber's formula for the sums of powers and a q-analogue of Gessel-Viennot's formula involving Salié's coefficients for the alternating sums of powers. In this paper, we show that these are polynomials with symmetric, nonnegative integral coefficients by refining Gessel-Viennot's combinatorial interpretations.     

Orbits of rational n-sets of projective spaces under the action of the linear group

Let k=Fq be a finite field. We enumerate k-rational n-sets of (unordered) points in a projective space PN over k, and we compute the generating function for the numbers of PGLN+1(k)-orbits of these n-sets. For N=1,2 we obtain a formula for these numbers of orbits as a polynomial in q with integer coefficients.     

The q-Calkin-Wilf tree

We define a q-analogue of the Calkin-Wilf tree and the Calkin-Wilf sequence. We show that the nth term f(n;q) of the q-analogue of the Calkin-Wilf sequence is the generating function for the number of hyperbinary expansions of n according to the number of powers that are used exactly twice. We also present formulae for branches within the q-analogue of the Calkin-Wilf tree and predecessors and successors of terms in the q-analogue of the Calkin-Wilf sequence.     

Log-concavity and LC-positivity

A triangle {a(n,k)}_0?k?n of nonnegative numbers is LC-positive if for each r, the sequence of polynomials is q-log-concave. It is double LC-positive if both triangles {a(n,k)} and {a(n,n−k)} are LC-positive. We show that if {a(n,k)} is LC-positive then the log-concavity of the sequence {xk} implies that of the sequence {zn} defined by , and if {a(n,k)} is double LC-positive then the log-concavity of sequences {xk} and {yk} implies that of the sequence {zn} defined by . Examples of double LC-positive triangles include the constant triangle and the Pascal triangle. We also give a generalization of a result of Liggett that is used to prove a conjecture of Pemantle on characteristics of negative dependence.