On Directed Lattice Paths With Additional Vertical Steps

The paper is devoted to the study of lattice paths that consist of vertical steps $(0,-1)$ and non-vertical steps $(1,k)$ for some $k\in \mathbb Z$. Two special families of primary and free lattice paths with vertical steps are considered. It is shown that for any family of primary paths there are equinumerous families of proper weighted lattice paths that consist of only non-vertical steps. The relation between primary and free paths is established and some combinatorial and statistical properties are obtained. It is shown that the expected number of vertical steps in a primary path running from $(0,0)$ to $(n,-1)$ is equal to the number of free paths running from $(0,0)$ to $(n,0)$. Enumerative results with generating functions are given. Finally, a few examples of families of paths with vertical steps are presented and related to {\L}ukasiewicz, Motzkin, Dyck and Delannoy paths.