English

An Elementary Proof of the Cayley Formula Using Random Maps

Combinatorics 2014-09-08 v1

Abstract

Cayley's formula states that the number of labelled trees on nn vertices is nn2n^{n-2}, and many of the current proofs involve complex structures or rigorous computation. We present a bijective proof of the formula by providing an elementary calculation of the probability that a cycle occurs in a random map from an nn-element set to an n+1n+1-element set.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.1614,
  title  = {An Elementary Proof of the Cayley Formula Using Random Maps},
  author = {Steven Hao and Andrew He and Ray Li and Scott Wu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.1614},
  year   = {2014}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T05:49:04.875Z