The level polynomials of the free distributive lattices

We show that there exist a set of polynomials {L_k?k = 0, 1?} such that L_k(n) is the number of elements of rank k in the free distributive lattice on n generators. L₀(n) = L₁(n) = 1 for all n and the degree of L_k is k?1 for k?1. We show that the coefficients of the L_k can be calculated using another family of polynomials, P_j. We show how to calculate L_k for k = 1,…,16 and P_j for j = 0,…,10. These calculations are enough to determine the number of elements of each rank in the free distributive lattice on 5 generators a result first obtained by Church 2]. We also calculate the asymptotic behavior of the L_k's and P_j's.