On q-Olivier Functions

We consider words w₁· · · w_n with letters w_i ? {1, 2, 3, ?} w_i \in \{1, 2, 3, \ldots\} satisfying an up-up-down pattern like a₁ h a₂ h a₃ S a₄ h a₅ h a₆ S · · · . Attaching the (geometric) probability pq^i-1 to the letter i (with p = 1 -- q), every word gets a probability by assuming independence of letters. We are interested in the probability that a random word of length n satisfies the up-up-down condition. It turns out that one has to consider the 3 residue classes (mod 3) separately; then one can compute the associated probability generating function. They turn out to be q-analogues of so called Olivier functions.