Sums of powers of Catalan triangle numbers

Abstract

In this paper we consider combinatorial numbers $C_{m,k}$ for $m\ge 1$ and $k\ge 0$ which unifies the entries of the Catalan triangles $B_{n,k}$ and $A_{n,k}$ for appropriate values of parameters $m$ and $k$, i.e., $B_{n,k}=C_{2n,n-k}$ and $A_{n,k}=C_{2n+1,n+1-k}$. In fact, some of these numbers are the well-known Catalan numbers $C_n$ that is $C_{2n,n-1}=C_{2n+1,n}=C_n$. We present new identities for recurrence relations, linear sums and alternating sum of $C_{m,k}$. After that, we check sums (and alternating sums) of squares and cubes of $C_{m,k}$ and, consequently, for $B_{n,k}$ and $A_{n,k}$. In particular, one of these equalities solves an open problem posed in \cite{[GHMN]}. We also present some linear identities involving harmonic numbers $H_n$ and Catalan triangles numbers $C_{m,k}$. Finally, in the last section new open problems and identities involving $C_n$ are conjectured.