English

Preference-restricted parking functions

Combinatorics 2025-07-17 v1

Abstract

A parking function is a function π:[n][n]\pi:[n]\to [n] whose iith-smallest output is at most i,i, corresponding to a parking procedure for nn cars on a one-way street. We refine this concept by introducing preference-restricted parking functions, which are parking functions with codomain restricted to some S[n]S\subseteq[n]. Particular choices of SS yield new combinatorial interpretations of previous results about variant parking procedures, and new results too. In particular we consider prime parking functions, parking procedures with fewer spots than cars, and parking functions where each spot has space for multiple cars. We also use restricted parking functions to reprove Abel's binomial theorem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.11701,
  title  = {Preference-restricted parking functions},
  author = {Jasper Bown and Peter Kagey and Alan Kappler and Michael E. Orrison and Jayden Thadani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.11701},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

17 pages, 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T04:03:10.695Z