English

Phylogenetic trees, augmented perfect matchings, and a Thron-type continued fraction (T-fraction) for the Ward polynomials

Combinatorics 2021-02-24 v2

Abstract

We find a Thron-type continued fraction (T-fraction) for the ordinary generating function of the Ward polynomials, as well as for some generalizations employing a large (indeed infinite) family of independent indeterminates. Our proof is based on a bijection between super-augmented perfect matchings and labeled Schr\"oder paths, which generalizes Flajolet's bijection between perfect matchings and labeled Dyck paths.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2001.01468,
  title  = {Phylogenetic trees, augmented perfect matchings, and a Thron-type continued fraction (T-fraction) for the Ward polynomials},
  author = {Andrew Elvey Price and Alan D. Sokal},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.01468},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

LaTeX2e, 36 pages (includes 4 figures). Version 2 corrects a small error in the definition of crossing number (p. 6) and includes a proof of the previously conjectured (1.25)/(1.26)