How statement and proof provenance work
The first chip identifies the source of the statement or construction; the second identifies the source of its local proof or verification.
- Literature-sourced: the exact statement appears in a cited source; only wording and notation differ.
- AI-adapted: a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
- AI-generated: a genuinely novel statement formulated by AI, with no source for the claim itself.
These labels describe origin, not correctness: citations and verification chips remain separate evidence.
Statement
For every , in ,
where is the Catalan number (The Catalan number ) and the coefficients are those of The set of -element subsets and the binomial coefficient . Equivalently , the subtraction being legitimate because the displayed identity has been proved.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: a natural number .
is the set of diagonal paths of length from to whose height function satisfies for every with ; for it has exactly one element, with step word (Dyck paths of semilength ).
, and (The Catalan number ).
For , and , : if divides and , and satisfies , then , the set of paths in staying strictly above the level is finite, and (The reflection principle: paths from to staying strictly above level are counted by a difference of two binomial coefficients, clause 2).
for , and (The set of -element subsets and the binomial coefficient ).
Proof
Since heights are integers, holds exactly when ; so is precisely the set of paths in that stay strictly above the level .
Apply [L1] with , , and . The hypotheses hold: and because ; and is even with , so the natural number with is and . By step 1.1 the set is , whose cardinality is , so .
Since the identity holds in , the difference form follows. At it reads , that is by [L2] and ; at it reads , that is , matching the single element of .
Remarks
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Where the reflection is spent. The level is and not : a Dyck path starts and ends at height , so no path stays strictly above , and it is only because heights are integers that the weak condition against is the strict condition against . The reflected starting height is , which is why the subtracted coefficient is the one attached to the endpoint pair from to .
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The additive form is the one proved. Writing the difference first would require knowing in advance that , which is a consequence of the identity rather than an input to it.
Depends on
- The Catalan number $C_n:=\lvert\mathcal{D}_n\rvert$
- The reflection principle: paths from $(0,a)$ to $(n,b)$ staying strictly above level $c$ are counted by a difference of two binomial coefficients
- Dyck paths of semilength $n$
- The set $[A]^{k}$ of $k$-element subsets and the binomial coefficient $\binom{n}{k} := \lvert [n]^{k}\rvert$
Used by
Dependency tree · two levels
20 results within two dependency steps of this one, each drawn at its shortest distance from it. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, so the chart reads left to right and ends at this result, which carries a heavier outline. Every node is a link to that result. Click elsewhere on the chart to enlarge it.
Sources
- C. Krattenthaler, "Lattice Path Enumeration", ch. 10 of the Handbook of Enumerative Combinatorics, §10.3, Corollary 10.3.2 (standard reference, not scraped)