Séminaire Lotharingien de Combinatoire, B64b (2010), 17 pp.

Matthieu Josuat-Vergès

Generalized Dumont-Foata Polynomials and Alternative Tableaux

Abstract. Dumont and Foata introduced in 1976 a three-variable symmetric refinement of Genocchi numbers, which satisfies a simple recurrence relation. A six-variable generalization with many similar properties was later considered by Dumont. It generalizes a lot of known integer sequences, and its ordinary generating function can be expanded as a Jacobi continued fraction. We give here a new combinatorial interpretation of the six-variable polynomials in terms of the alternative tableaux introduced by Viennot. A powerful tool to enumerate alternative tableaux is the so-called "matrix Ansatz," and using this we show that our combinatorial interpretation naturally leads to a new proof of the continued fraction expansion.


Received: May 21, 2010. Accepted: October 20, 2010. Final Version: November 18, 2010.

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