Abel's method on summation by parts and terminating well-poised q-series identities

The Abel method on summation by parts is reformulated to present new and elementary proofs of several classical identities of terminating well-poised basic hypergeometric series, mainly discovered by [F H. Jackson, Certain q-identities, Quart. J. Math. Oxford Ser. 12 (1941) 167–172]. This strengthens further our conviction that as a traditional analytical instrument, the revised Abel method on summation by parts is indeed a very natural choice for working with basic hypergeometric series.     

Plücker environments, wiring and tiling diagrams, and weakly separated set-systems

For the ordered set [n] of n elements, we consider the class Bn of bases B of tropical Plücker functions on ²[n] such that B can be obtained by a series of so-called weak flips (mutations) from the basis formed by the intervals in [n]. We show that these bases are representable by special wiring diagrams and by certain arrangements generalizing rhombus tilings on an n-zonogon. Based on the generalized tiling representation, we then prove that each weakly separated set-system in ²[n] having maximum possible size belongs to Bn, yielding the affirmative answer to one conjecture due to Leclerc and Zelevinsky. We also prove an analogous result for a hyper-simplex .     

Generalizations of two identities of Guo and Yang

In this paper, we provide generalizations of two identities of Guo and Yang [2] for the q-binomial coe?cients. This approach allows us to derive new convolution identities for the complete and elementary symmetric functions. New identities involving q-binomial coe?cients are obtained as very special cases of these results. A new relationship between restricted partitions and restricted partitions into parts of two kinds is derived in this context.     

Decomposable compositions, symmetric quasisymmetric functions and equality of ribbon Schur functions

We define an equivalence relation on integer compositions and show that two ribbon Schur functions are identical if and only if their defining compositions are equivalent in this sense. This equivalence is completely determined by means of a factorization for compositions: equivalent compositions have factorizations that differ only by reversing some of the terms. As an application, we can derive identities on certain Littlewood-Richardson coefficients.Finally, we consider the cone of symmetric functions having a nonnnegative representation in terms of the fundamental quasisymmetric basis. We show the Schur functions are among the extremes of this cone and conjecture its facets are in bijection with the equivalence classes of compositions.     

Ratio asymptotic of Hermite-Padé orthogonal polynomials for Nikishin systems. II

We prove ratio asymptotic for sequences of multiple orthogonal polynomials with respect to a Nikishin system of measures N(σ₁,…,σm) such that for each k, σk has constant sign on its support consisting on an interval , on which almost everywhere, and a set without accumulation points in .     

Chromatic polynomial, q-binomial counting and colored Jones function

We define a q-chromatic function and q-dichromate on graphs and compare it with existing graph functions. Then we study in more detail the class of general chordal graphs. This is partly motivated by the graph isomorphism problem. Finally we relate the q-chromatic function to the colored Jones function of knots. This leads to a curious expression of the colored Jones function of a knot diagram K as a chromatic operator applied to a power series whose coefficients are linear combinations of long chord diagrams. Chromatic operators are directly related to weight systems by the work of Chmutov, Duzhin, Lando and Noble, Welsh.     

Nudelman interpolation and the band method

In previous work the authors developed a new addition of the band method based on a Grassmannian approach for solving a completion/extension problem in a general, abstract framework. This addition allows one to obtain a linear fractional representation of all solutions of the abstract completion problem from special extensions which are not necessarily band extensions (for the positive case) or triangular extensions (for the contractive case). In this work we extend this framework to a somewhat more general setting and show how one can obtain formulas for the required special extensions from solutions of a system of linear equations. As an application we show how the formalism can be applied to the bitangential Nevanlinna-Pick interpolation problem, a case which, up to now, was not amenable to the band method.The first author was partially supported by National Science Foundation grant DMS-9500912.     

Conjectured statistics for the q,t-Catalan numbers

We introduce the distribution function F_n(q,t) of a pair of statistics on Catalan words and conjecture F_n(q,t) equals Garsia and Haiman's q,t-Catalan sequence C_n(q,t), which they defined as a sum of rational functions. We show that F_n,s(q,t), defined as the sum of these statistics restricted to Catalan words ending in s ones, satisfies a recurrence relation. As a corollary we are able to verify that F_n(q,t)=C_n(q,t) when t=1/q. We also show the partial symmetry relation F_n(q,1)=F_n(1,q). By modifying a proof of Haiman of a q-Lagrange inversion formula based on results of Garsia and Gessel, we obtain a q-analogue of the general Lagrange inversion formula which involves Catalan words grouped according to the number of ones at the end of the word.     

Strongly omnipresent integral operators

An operatorT on the spaceH(G) of holomorphic functions on a domainG is strongly omnipresent whenever there is a residual set of functionsfH(G) such thatT f exhibits an extremely wild behaviour near the boundary. The concept of strong omnipresence was recently introduced by the first two authors. In this paper it is proved that a large class of integral operators including Volterra operators with or without a perturbation by differential operators has this property, completing earlier work about differential and antidifferential operators.The work of the first two authors has been partially supported by DGES grant PB96-1348 and the Junta de Andalucía.     

Inversion of the Pieri formula for Macdonald polynomials

We give the explicit analytic development of Macdonald polynomials in terms of “modified complete” and elementary symmetric functions. These expansions are obtained by inverting the Pieri formula. Specialization yields similar developments for monomial, Jack and Hall-Littlewood symmetric functions.     

The band method and generalized Carathéodory-Toeplitz interpolation at operator points

A generalization of the band method is presented. In the new set up there are two semi-band structures, a right one and a left one, and the two are coupled. Moreover the role of the band extension in the classical version is taken over by a special positive real part extension. It is shown that with minor modifications the main results of the band method extend to this more general set up. As an application a generalization of the Carathéodory-Teoplitz interpolation problem for operator functions with operator arguments is solved.     

Essential countability of treeable equivalence relations

We establish a dichotomy theorem characterizing the circumstances under which a treeable Borel equivalence relation E is essentially countable. Under additional topological assumptions on the treeing, we in fact show that E   is essentially countable if and only if there is no continuous embedding of _E1${\mathbb{E}}_1$ into E. Our techniques also yield the first classical proof of the analogous result for hypersmooth equivalence relations, and allow us to show that up to continuous Kakutani embeddability, there is a minimum Borel function which is not essentially countable-to-one.     

Dyck paths and restricted permutations

This paper is devoted to characterize permutations with forbidden patterns by using canonical reduced decompositions, which leads to bijections between Dyck paths and S_n(321) and S_n(231), respectively. We also discuss permutations in S_n avoiding two patterns, one of length 3 and the other of length k. These permutations produce a kind of discrete continuity between the Motzkin and the Catalan numbers.     

The Zassenhaus filtration,Massey products,and representations of profinite groups

We consider the p  -Zassenhaus filtration (_Gn)$(G_n)$ of a profinite group G  . Suppose that G=S/N$G=S/N$ for a free profinite group S and a normal subgroup N of S   contained in _Sn$S_n$. Under a cohomological assumption on the n-fold Massey products (which holds, e.g., if G has p  -cohomological dimension ≤ 1), we prove that _Gn+1$G_{n+1}$ is the intersection of all kernels of upper-triangular unipotent (n+1)$(n+1)$-dimensional representations of G   over _Fp${\mathbb{F}}_p$. This extends earlier results by Miná?, Spira, and the author on the structure of absolute Galois groups of fields.     

Linear recurrence relations for binomial coefficients modulo a prime

We investigate when the sequence of binomial coefficients modulo a prime p, for a fixed positive integer k, satisfies a linear recurrence relation of (positive) degree h in the finite range 0?i?k. In particular, we prove that this cannot occur if 2h?k<p−h. This hypothesis can be weakened to 2h?k<p if we assume, in addition, that the characteristic polynomial of the relation does not have −1 as a root. We apply our results to recover a known bound for the number of points of a Fermat curve over a finite field.     

On the convergence of type I Hermite–Padé approximants

Padé approximation has two natural extensions to vector rational approximation through the so-called type I and type II Hermite–Padé approximants. The convergence properties of type II Hermite–Padé approximants have been studied. For such approximants Markov and Stieltjes type theorems are available. To the present, such results have not been obtained for type I approximants. In this paper, we provide Markov and Stieltjes type theorems on the convergence of type I Hermite–Padé approximants for Nikishin systems of functions.     

New identities involving Bernoulli and Euler polynomials

Using the finite difference calculus and differentiation, we obtain several new identities for Bernoulli and Euler polynomials; some extend Miki's and Matiyasevich's identities, while others generalize a symmetric relation observed by Woodcock and some results due to Sun.     

A time-variant version of the commutant lifting theorem and nonstationary interpolation problems

This paper contains a generalization of the commutant lifting theorem to a time-variant setting. The main result, which is called the three chains completion theorem, is used to solve various nonstationary norm constrained interpolation problems.     

Fix-mahonian calculus III; a quadruple distribution

A four-variable distribution on permutations is derived, with two dual combinatorial interpretations. The first one includes the number of fixed points “fix”, the second the so-called “pix” statistic. This shows that the duality between derangements and desarrangements can be extended to the case of multivariable statistics. Several specializations are obtained, including the joint distribution of (des, exc), where “des” and “exc” stand for the number of descents and excedances, respectively. Authors’ addresses: Dominique Foata, Institut Lothaire, 1 rue Murner, F-67000 Strasbourg, France; Guo-Niu Han, Center for Combinatorics, LPMC, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P.R. China; I.R.M.A. UMR 7501, Université Louis Pasteur et CNRS, 7, rue René-Descartes, F-67084 Strasbourg, France