English

On limiting distributions of Graham, Knuth, Patashnik recurrences

Probability 2025-02-20 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

Graham, Knuth and Patashnik in their book Concrete Mathematics called for development of a general theory of the solutions of recurrences defined by nk=(αn+βk+γ)n1k+(αn+βk+γ)n1k1+In=k=0\left|{ n\atop k}\right|=(\alpha n+\beta k+\gamma)\left|{n-1\atop k}\right|+(\alpha' n+\beta' k+\gamma')\left|{n-1\atop k-1}\right|+I_{n=k=0} for 0kn0\le k\le n and six parameters α,β,γ,αβ,γ\alpha,\beta,\gamma,\alpha'\beta',\gamma'. Since then, a number of authors investigated various properties of the solutions of these recurrences. In this note we consider a probabilistic aspect, namely we consider the limiting distributions of sequences of integer valued random variables naturally associated with the solutions of such recurrences. We will give a complete description of the limiting behavior when α=0\alpha'=0 and the remaining five parameters are non--negative.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.13382,
  title  = {On limiting distributions of Graham, Knuth, Patashnik recurrences},
  author = {Pawel Hitczenko},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.13382},
  year   = {2025}
}