arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Stefano Bilotta.
We study k-coloured Motzkin paths, namely Motzkin paths in which horizontal steps can be coloured in k different ways, and investigate their connection with the number of prefixes ending at odd height from both an analytical and a combinatorial point of view. Moreover, the combinatorial approach provides a random generation algorithm for k-coloured Motzkin paths in linear-time.
We extend the notion of mex, which is central in combinatorial number theory, to an arbitrary combinatorial structure, and we prove a general theorem to determine the generating function of the objects having fixed mex. We then study this new mex statistic for several classical combinatorial structures, by providing the mex generating function and/or a closed formula for its coefficients in each of the cases.
Catalan numbers and their interpretations in terms of Dyck paths are widely used in different topics of applied mathematics and computer science. Here, we consider a general approach for constrained Dyck paths. In particular, we study Dyck paths of height at most $h$ with the additional restriction of having no $k-1$ consecutive valleys at height $h-1$. We give a combinatorial description of this class of paths and derive enumeration formulas using classical techniques for counting constrained lattice paths. As a consequence of this analysis, we obtain an identity involving Catalan numbers which, to the best of the authors' knowledge, does not appear in the existing literature. This identity arises naturally from the combinatorial interpretation and provides a new relation among families of Dyck paths with height and local structural constraints.
Given a positive rational $q$, we consider Dyck paths having height at most two with some constraints on the number of consecutive peaks and consecutive valleys, depending on $q$. We introduce a general class of Dyck paths, called rational Dyck paths, and provide the associated generating function, according to their semilength, as well as the construction of such a class. Moreover, we characterize some subsets of the rational Dyck paths that are enumerated by the $\mathbb Q$-bonacci numbers.
We consider Dyck paths having height at most two with some constraints on the number of consecutive valleys at height one which must be followed by a suitable number of valleys at height zero. We prove that they are enumerated by so-called Q-bonacci numbers (recently introduced by Kirgizov) which generalize the classical q-bonacci numbers in the case where q is a positive rational.
We propose a method for the construction of sets of variable dimension strong non-overlapping matrices basing on any strong non-overlapping set of strings.
Dyck paths having height at most $h$ and without valleys at height $h-1$ are combinatorially interpreted by means of 312-avoding permutations with some restrictions on their \emph{left-to-right maxima}. The results are obtained by analyzing a restriction of a well-known bijection between the sets of Dyck paths and 312-avoding permutations. We also provide a recursive formula enumerating these two structures using ECO method and the theory of production matrices. As a further result we obtain a family of combinatorial identities involving Catalan numbers.
We define a set of binary matrices where any two of them can not be placed one on the other in a way such that the corresponding entries coincide. The rows of the matrices are obtained by means of Dyck words. The cardinality of the set of such matrices involves Catalan numbers.
We define a variable-length code having the property that no (non-empty) prefix of each its codeword is a suffix of any other one, and vice versa. This kind of code can be seen as an extension of two well-known codes in literature, called respectively fix-free code and non-overlapping code. In this paper, some constructive algorithms for such codes are presented as well as numerical results about their cardinality.
Two matrices are said non-overlapping if one of them can not be put on the other one in a way such that the corresponding entries coincide. We provide a set of non-overlapping binary matrices and a formula to enumerate it which involves the $k$-generalized Fibonacci numbers. Moreover, the generating function for the enumerating sequence is easily seen to be rational.
A bidimensional bifix (in short bibifix) of a square matrix T is a square submatrix of T which occurs in the top-left and bottom-right corners of T. This allows us to extend the definition of bifix-free words and cross-bifix-free set of words to bidimensional structures. In this paper we exhaustively generate all the bibifix-free square matrices and we construct a particular non-expandable cross-bibifix-free set of square matrices. Moreover, we provide a Gray code for listing this set.
Cross-bifix-free sets are sets of words such that no prefix of any word is a sufix of any other word. In this paper, we introduce a general constructive method for the sets of cross-bifix-free q-ary words of fixed length. It enables us to determine a cross-bifix-free words subset which has the property to be non-expandable.
A cross-bifix-free set of words is a set in which no prefix of any length of any word is the suffix of any other word in the set. A construction of cross-bifix-free sets has recently been proposed by Chee {\it et al.} in 2013 within a constant factor of optimality. We propose a \emph{trace partitioned} Gray code for these cross-bifix-free sets and a CAT algorithm generating it.
We provide a trace partitioned Gray code for the set of q-ary strings avoiding a pattern constituted by k consecutive equal symbols. The definition of this Gray code is based on two different constructions, according to the parity of q. This result generalizes, and is based on, a Gray code for binary strings avoiding k consecutive 0's.
In this paper we present a method to pass from a recurrence relation having constant coefficients (in short, a C-recurrence) to a finite succession rule defining the same number sequence. We recall that succession rules are a recently studied tool for the enumeration of combinatorial objects related to the ECO method. We also discuss the applicability of our method as a test for the positivity of a number sequence.
In this paper we propose an algorithm to generate binary words with no more 0's than 1's having a fixed number of 1's and avoiding the pattern $(10)^j1$ for any fixed $j \geq 1$. We will prove that this generation is exhaustive, that is, all such binary words are generated.
Cross-bifix-free sets are sets of words such that no prefix of any word is a suffix of any other word. In this paper, we introduce a general constructive method for the sets of cross-bifix-free binary words of fixed length. It enables us to determine a cross-bifix-free words subset which has the property to be non-expandable.
In this paper we study the enumeration and the construction, according to the number of ones, of particular binary words avoiding a fixed pattern. The growth of such words can be described by particular jumping and marked succession rules. This approach enables us to obtain an algorithm which constructs all binary words having a fixed number of ones and then kills those containing the forbidden pattern.