A combinatorial bijection on $k$-noncrossing partitions

Abstract

For any integer $k\ge 2$, we prove combinatorially the following Euler (binomial) transformation identity $$ \NC_{n+1}^{(k)}(t)=t\sum_{i=0}^n{n\choose i}\NW_{i}^{(k)}(t), $$ where $\NC_{m}^{(k)}(t)$ (resp.~$\NW_{m}^{(k)}(t)$) is the sum of weights, $t^{\text{number of blocks}}$, of partitions of $\{1,\dots ,m\}$ without $k$-crossings (resp.~enhanced $k$-crossings). The special $k=2$ and $t=1$ case, asserting the Euler transformation of Motzkin numbers are Catalan numbers, was discovered by Donaghey 1977. The result for $k=3$ and $t=1$, arising naturally in a recent study of pattern avoidance in ascent sequences and inversion sequences, was proved only analytically.

20 pages, 20 figures, presented by Dongsu Kim in 2018 (January 10) JMM Special Session in honor of Dennis Stanton