cp's OEIS Frontend

Depending on some fixed integer m >= 0 we define a family of square arrays A(m; n, k) = (Sum_{i=0..m} (-1)^i * binomial(m, i) * (k + m - i)^(n+m)) / m! for k, n >= 0. Special cases are: A004248 (m=0), A343237 (m=1) and this array (m=2). The A(m; n, k) satisfy: A(m; n, k) = (k+m) * A(m; n-1, k) + A(m-1; n, k) with initial values A(0; n, k) = k^n and A(m; 0, k) = 1.

Further properties are conjectures:

(1) O.g.f. of column k is Prod_{i=k..k+m} 1 / (1 - i * t);

(2) E.g.f. of row n is exp(x) * (Sum_{k=0..n} binomial(k+m, m) * A048993(n+m, k+m) * x^k);

(3) The LU decompositions of these arrays are given by the upper triangular matrix U which is the transpose of A007318 and the lower triangular matrix L, where L is defined L(m; n, k) = A048993(n+m, k+m) * (k+m)! / m!, i.e., A(m; n, k) = Sum_{i=0..k} L(m; n, i) * binomial(k, i).

The three conjectures are true, see links. - Sela Fried, Jul 07 2024

A subobject of an object A is an object S equipped with a monomorphism S -> A, up to isomorphism in the category of objects equipped with such morphisms. Objects in the category of relations are sets, morphisms are relations, and composition is relation composition.

Objects and morphisms in Rel can be re-characterized as free complete join-semilattices (the power set of a set with join being union) and join-equivariant maps, respectively. Therefore, subobjects in Rel can be re-characterized as injective n X k matrices of truth values. Because every injective matrix of truth values can be shown to have pivots, subobjects can be counted via Schubert cells and this results in a family of generating functions describing the entire triangle. Short proof: if a monomorphism does not have a row consisting of all 0's except for one column in particular, then consider where it sends the column vector containing all 1's and the column vector containing all 1's but with the corresponding row flipped to 0. It cannot possibly send these vectors to two different vectors. (Here 0 and 1 represent false and true, respectively. Note that addition is logical "or" and multiplication is logical "and".)

Because Rel is self-dual, this sequence also counts quotient objects.

Entries not in the triangle's range are equal to 0 because there is no monomorphism from a k-element set to an n-element set when k > n.

All monomorphisms in Rel are regular, i.e., the equalizer of a pair of morphisms. In some categories, subobjects are taken to only be regular monomorphisms, or are at least distinguished; for example, a normal subgroup is (the domain of) a regular monomorphism in the category of groups. Because all monomorphisms in Rel are regular, there is no ambiguity in what a subobject in Rel is. See the link for a proof of this fact.

The sequence S(n,-2,1,1), n>=0, is A016269. It would be interesting to study the more general sequences S(r,-m,1,1), r=0,1,2,... for fixed m; here we consider the special cases m=3 and m=2. Finally, one can use the sum S(r,k,t,q) to discover certain recurrence relations involving poly-Bernoulli numbers. Let us note that the well known recurrence of the classical Bernoulli numbers yields S(r,1,1,1)=r+1. Let us also note that numerical experimentation suggests that S(r,-2,1,1)=S(r,-3,0,q).