Generalized Stirling Numbers I

We consider generalized Stirling numbers of the second kind $$, $$, where $a,b,\alpha_{s},\beta_{s}$ are complex numbers, and $r,p,r_{s},p_{s}$ are non-negative integers given, $s=2,\ldots ,L$. (The case $a=1,b=0,r=1,r_{s}p_{s}=0$, corresponds to the standard Stirling numbers $S\left( p,k\right)$.) The numbers $$ are connected with a generalization of Eulerian numbers and polynomials we studied in previous works. This link allows us to propose (first, and then to prove, specially in the case $r=r_{s}=1$) several results involving our generalized Stirling numbers, including several families of new recurrences for Stirling numbers of the second kind. In a future work we consider the recurrence and the differential operator associated to the numbers $$.