Generating Function of the Tilings of an Aztec Rectangle with Holes

We consider a generating function of the domino tilings of an Aztec rectangle with several unit squares removed from the boundary. Our generating function involves two statistics: the rank of the tiling and half number of vertical dominoes as in the Aztec diamond theorem by Elkies, Kuperberg, Larsen and Propp. In addition, our work deduces a combinatorial explanation for an interesting connection between the number of lozenge tilings of a semihexagon and the number of domino tilings of an Aztec rectangle.     

Laurent biorthogonal polynomials, q-Narayana polynomials and domino tilings of the Aztec diamonds

A Toeplitz determinant whose entries are described by a q-analogue of the Narayana polynomials is evaluated by means of Laurent biorthogonal polynomials which allow of a combinatorial interpretation in terms of Schröder paths. As an application, a new proof is given to the Aztec diamond theorem by Elkies, Kuperberg, Larsen and Propp concerning domino tilings of the Aztec diamonds. The proof is based on the correspondence with non-intersecting Schröder paths developed by Johansson.     

Enumeration of domino tilings of an Aztec rectangle with boundary defects

In this paper we enumerate domino tilings of an Aztec rectangle with arbitrary defects of size one on all boundary sides. This result extends previous work by different authors: Mills–Robbins–Rumsey and Elkies–Kuperberg–Larsen–Propp. We use the method of graphical condensation developed by Kuo and generalized by Ciucu, to prove our results; a common generalization of both Kuo's and Ciucu's result is also presented here.     

Perfect Matchings of Cellular Graphs

We introduce a family of graphs, called cellular, and consider the problem of enumerating their perfect matchings. We prove that the number of perfect matchings of a cellular graph equals a power of 2 times the number of perfect matchings of a certain subgraph, called the core of the graph. This yields, as a special case, a new proof of the fact that the Aztec diamond graph of order n introduced by Elkies, Kuperberg, Larsen and Propp has exactly 2 ^n(n+1)/2 perfect matchings. As further applications, we prove a recurrence for the number of perfect matchings of certain cellular graphs indexed by partitions, and we enumerate the perfect matchings of two other families of graphs called Aztec rectangles and Aztec triangles.     

Double Aztec rectangles

We investigate the connection between lozenge tilings and domino tilings by introducing a new family of regions obtained by attaching two different Aztec rectangles. We prove a simple product formula for the generating functions of the tilings of the new regions, which involves the statistics as in the Aztec diamond theorem (Elkies et al. (1992) [2], [3]). Moreover, we consider the connection between the generating function and MacMahon's q-enumeration of plane partitions fitting in a given box     

Domino–Pflasterungen und Aztekensterne

Zusammenfassung Elkies, Kuperberg, Larsen und Propp zeigen in [1] eine verblüffend einfache Formel für die Anzahl der Domino–Pflasterungen von sogenannten Aztekensternen. Einer der vier Beweise, die sie angeben, kommt mit elementaren Mitteln aus. In diesem wird eine Verschiebeoperation auf den einzelnen Dominos, das Domino–Shuffling, verwendet. Der Beweis einer zentralen Eigenschaft dieser Operation (Theorem 2) bleibt in [1] jedoch vage. Nachdem wir uns anhand einiger Beispiele dem Thema gen?hert haben, formulieren wir Theorem 2 und stellen den Beweis der Formel mittels Domino–Shuffling aus [1] vor. Anschlie?end beleuchten wir die Schwierigkeiten, die beim Beweis von Theorem 2 auftreten und geben einen Beweis an.     

On the enumeration of certain weighted graphs

We enumerate weighted simple graphs with a natural upper bound condition on the sum of the weight of adjacent vertices. We also compute the generating function of the numbers of these graphs, and prove that it is a rational function. In particular, we show that the generating function for connected bipartite simple graphs is of the form p₁(x)/(1-x)^m+1. For nonbipartite simple graphs, we get a generating function of the form p₂(x)/(1-x)^m+1(1+x)^l. Here m is the number of vertices of the graph, p₁(x) is a symmetric polynomial of degree at most m, p₂(x) is a polynomial of degree at most m+l, and l is a nonnegative integer. In addition, we give computational results for various graphs.     

Asymptotic coefficients for Gaussian radial basis function interpolants

Gaussian radial basis functions (RBFs) on an infinite interval with uniform grid pacing h are defined by ?(x;α,h)≡exp(-[α²/h²]x²). The only significant numerical parameter is α, the inverse width of the RBF functions relative to h. In the limit α→0, we demonstrate that the coefficients of the interpolant of a typical function f(x) grow proportionally to exp(π²/[4α²]). However, we also show that the approximation to the constant f(x)≡1 is a Jacobian theta function whose coefficients do not blow up as α→0. The subtle interplay between the complex-plane singularities of f(x) (the function being approximated) and the RBF inverse width parameter α are analyzed. For α≈1/2, the size of the RBF coefficients and the condition number of the interpolation matrix are both no larger than O(10⁴) and the error saturation is smaller than machine epsilon, so this α is the center of a “safe operating range” for Gaussian RBFs.     

Raising approximation order of refinable vector by increasing multiplicity

An algorithm is presented for raising an approximation order of any given orthogonal multiscaling function with the dilation factor a. Let φ(x) = [φ1(x),φ2(x),…,φr(x)]T be an orthogonal multiscaling function with the dilation factor a and the approximation order m. We can construct a new orthogonal multiscaling function φnew(x) = [ φT(x). f3r 1(x),φr 2(x),…,φr s(x)}T with the approximation order m L(L ∈ Z ). In other words, we raise the approximation order of multiscaling function φ(x) by increasing its multiplicity. In addition, we discuss an especial setting. That is, if given an orthogonal multiscaling function φ(x) = [φ1 (x), φ2(x), …, φr(x)]T is symmetric, then the new orthogonal multiscaling function φnew(x) not only raise the approximation order but also preserve symmetry. Finally, some examples are given.     

Jagged Partitions

By jagged partitions we refer to an ordered collection of non-negative integers (n₁, n₂,..., n_m) with n_m≥ p for some positive integer p, further subject to some weakly decreasing conditions that prevent them for being genuine partitions. The case analyzed in greater detail here corresponds to p = 1 and the following conditions n_i≥ n_i+1−1 and n_i≥ n_i+2. A number of properties for the corresponding partition function are derived, including rather remarkable congruence relations. An interesting application of jagged partitions concerns the derivation of generating functions for enumerating partitions with special restrictions, a point that is illustrated with various examples. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary—05A15, 05A17, 05A19     

Functional inequalities involving special functions

Let up(x) be the generalized and normalized Bessel function depending on parameters b,c,p and let σ(r)=up(1−r²)/up(r²), r∈(0,1). Motivated by an open problem of Anderson, Vamanamurthy, and Vuorinen we prove that for all r₁,r₂∈(0,1) for certain conditions on the parameters b,c,p.     

Approximation by smooth functions with no critical points on separable Banach spaces

We characterize the class of separable Banach spaces X such that for every continuous function and for every continuous function there exists a C¹ smooth function for which |f(x)−g(x)|?ε(x) and g^′(x)≠0 for all x∈X (that is, g has no critical points), as those infinite-dimensional Banach spaces X with separable dual X^∗. We also state sufficient conditions on a separable Banach space so that the function g can be taken to be of class Cp, for p=1,2,…,+∞. In particular, we obtain the optimal order of smoothness of the approximating functions with no critical points on the classical spaces ?p(N) and Lp(Rn). Some important consequences of the above results are (1) the existence of a non-linear Hahn-Banach theorem and the smooth approximation of closed sets, on the classes of spaces considered above; and (2) versions of all these results for a wide class of infinite-dimensional Banach manifolds.     

A continuous family of partition statistics equidistributed with length

This article investigates a remarkable generalization of the generating function that enumerates partitions by area and number of parts. This generating function is given by the infinite product _∏i?11/(1−tqi). We give uncountably many new combinatorial interpretations of this infinite product involving partition statistics that arose originally in the context of Hilbert schemes. We construct explicit bijections proving that all of these statistics are equidistributed with the length statistic on partitions of n. Our bijections employ various combinatorial constructions involving cylindrical lattice paths, Eulerian tours on directed multigraphs, and oriented trees.     

Periodic decomposition of measurable integer valued functions

We study those functions that can be written as a sum of (almost everywhere) integer valued periodic measurable functions with given periods. We show that being (almost everywhere) integer valued measurable function and having a real valued periodic decomposition with the given periods is not enough. We characterize those periods for which this condition is enough. We also get that the class of bounded measurable (almost everywhere) integer valued functions does not have the so-called decomposition property. We characterize those periods a₁,…,ak for which an almost everywhere integer valued bounded measurable function f has an almost everywhere integer valued bounded measurable (a₁,…,ak)-periodic decomposition if and only if Δa₁?Δakf=0, where Δaf(x)=f(x+a)−f(x).     

Uniform approximation by some Hermite interpolating splines

In this paper some upper bound for the error ∥ s-f ∥_∞ is given, where f ε C¹[a,b], but s is a so-called Hermite spline interpolant (HSI) of degree 2q ?1 such that f(x_i) = s(x_i), f′(rmx_i) = s′(x_i), s^(j) (x_i) = 0 (i = 0, 1, …, n; j = 2, 3, …, q ?1; n > 0, q > 0) and the knots x_i are such that a = x₀ < x₁ < … < x_n = b. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of convex HSI are given and upper error bound for approximation of the function fε C¹[a, b] by convex HSI is also given.     

Pseudo-contractibility of chainable continua

A space X is called pseudo-contractible if there exist a mapping and points a,b∈C, x₀∈X, where C is a continuum, fulfilling H(x,a)=x and H(x,b)=x₀. We show that the only (up to homeomorphism) pseudo-contractible chainable continuum is the arc. In particular the pseudo-arc is not pseudo-contractible, which answers a question of W. Kuperberg.     

Two-point Taylor expansions in the asymptotic approximation of double integrals. Application to the second and fourth Appell functions

The main difficulty in Laplace's method of asymptotic expansions of double integrals is originated by a change of variables. We consider a double integral representation of the second Appell function F₂(a,b,b^′,c,c^′;x,y) and illustrate, over this example, a variant of Laplace's method which avoids that change of variables and simplifies the computations. Essentially, the method only requires a Taylor expansion of the integrand at the critical point of the phase function. We obtain in this way an asymptotic expansion of F₂(a,b,b^′,c,c^′;x,y) for large b, b^′, c and c^′. We also consider a double integral representation of the fourth Appell function F₄(a,b,c,d;x,y). We show, in this example, that this variant of Laplace's method is uniform when two or more critical points coalesce or a critical point approaches the boundary of the integration domain. We obtain in this way an asymptotic approximation of F₄(a,b,c,d;x,y) for large values of a,b,c and d. In this second example, the method requires a Taylor expansion of the integrand at two points simultaneously. For this purpose, we also investigate in this paper Taylor expansions of two-variable analytic functions with respect to two points, giving Cauchy-type formulas for the coefficients of the expansion and details about the regions of convergence.     

An analytic approximation to the cardinal functions of Gaussian radial basis functions on an infinite lattice

Gaussian radial basis functions (RBFs) have been very useful in computer graphics and for numerical solutions of partial differential equations where these RBFs are defined, on a grid with uniform spacing h, as translates of the “master” function (x;α,h)≡exp(-[α²/h²]x²) where α is a user-choosable constant. Unfortunately, computing the coefficients of (x-jh;α,h) requires solving a linear system with a dense matrix. It would be much more efficient to rearrange the basis functions into the equivalent “Lagrangian” or “cardinal” basis because the interpolation matrix in the new basis is the identity matrix; the cardinal basis C_j(x;α,h) is defined by the set of linear combinations of the Gaussians such that C_j(kh)=1 when k=j and C_j(kh)=0 for all integers . We show that the cardinal functions for the uniform grid are C_j(x;h,α)=C(x/h-j;α) where C(X;α)≈(α²/π)sin(πX)/sinh(α²X). The relative error is only about 4exp(-2π²/α²) as demonstrated by the explicit second order approximation. It has long been known that the error in a series of Gaussian RBFs does not converge to zero for fixed α as h→0, but only to an “error saturation” proportional to exp(-π²/α²). Because the error in our approximation to the master cardinal function C(X;α) is the square of the error saturation, there is no penalty for using our new approximations to obtain matrix-free interpolating RBF approximations to an arbitrary function f(x). The master cardinal function on a uniform grid in d dimensions is just the direct product of the one-dimensional cardinal functions. Thus in two dimensions . We show that the matrix-free interpolation can be extended to non-uniform grids by a smooth change of coordinates.     

Partitions with rounded occurrences and attached parts

We introduce the number of (k,i)-rounded occurrences of a part in a partition and use q-difference equations to interpret a certain q-series S _k,i (a;x;q) as the generating function for partitions with bounded (k,i)-rounded occurrences and attached parts. When a=0 these partitions are the same as those studied by Bressoud in his extension of the Rogers-Ramanujan-Gordon identities to even moduli. When a=1/q we obtain a new family of partition identities.     

About a condition for starlikeness

A condition for starlikeness will be improved given by the inequality Re(f^′(x)+αzf^″(z))>0, z∈U, concerning analytic functions of the form f(z)=z+a₂z²+? which are defined on the unit disk .