English

Enumerating Vector Parking Functions and their Outcomes Based on Specified Lucky Cars

Combinatorics 2025-09-11 v2

Abstract

In a parking function, a car is considered lucky if it is able to park in its preferred spot. Extending work of Harris and Martinez, we enumerate outcomes of parking functions with a fixed set of lucky cars. We then consider a generalization of parking functions known as vector parking functions or u\boldsymbol{u}-parking functions, in which a nonnegative integer capacity is given to each parking spot in the street. With certain restrictions on u\boldsymbol{u}, we enumerate outcomes of u\boldsymbol{u}-parking functions with a fixed set of lucky cars or with a fixed number of lucky cars. We also count outcomes according to which spots contain lucky cars, and give formulas for enumerating u\boldsymbol{u}-parking functions themselves according to their set of lucky cars.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.13917,
  title  = {Enumerating Vector Parking Functions and their Outcomes Based on Specified Lucky Cars},
  author = {Melanie Ferreri and Pamela E. Harris and Lucy Martinez and Eric Swartz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.13917},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

2 figures, 23 pages, v2 includes a modified intro