We obtain explicit expressions for the class in the Grothendieck group of varieties of the moduli space $\overline {\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$. This information is equivalent to the Poincaré polynomial and yields explicit expressions for the Betti numbers of $\overline {\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$ in terms of Stirling or Bernoulli numbers. The expressions are obtained by solving a differential equation characterizing the generating function for the Poincaré polynomials, determined by Manin in the 1990s and equivalent to Keel’s recursion for the Betti numbers of $\overline {\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$. Our proof reduces the solution to two combinatorial identities, verified by applying Lagrange series. We also study generating functions for the individual Betti numbers. These functions are determined by a set of polynomials $p^{(k)}_m(z)$, $k\geqslant m$. These polynomials are conjecturally log-concave; we verify this conjecture for several infinite families, corresponding to generating functions for $2k$-Betti numbers of $\overline {\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$ for all $k\leqslant 100$. Further, studying the polynomials $p^{(k)}_m(z)$, we prove that the generating function for the Grothendieck class can be written in terms of a series of rational functions in the principal branch of the Lambert W-function. We include an interpretation of the main result in terms of Stirling matrices and a discussion of the Euler characteristic of $\overline {\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$.

Vertically symmetric alternating sign matrices (VSASMs) of order $2n+1$ are known to be equinumerous with lozenge tilings of a hexagon with side lengths $2n+2,2n,2n+2,2n,2n+2,2n$ and a central triangular hole of size $2$ that exhibit a cyclical as well as a vertical symmetry, but finding an explicit bijection proving this belongs to the most difficult problems in bijective combinatorics. Towards constructing such a bijection, we generalize the result by introducing certain natural extensions for both objects along with $n+3$ parameters and show that the multivariate generating functions with respect to these parameters coincide. This is a significant step from a constant number of equidistributed statistics to a linear number of statistics in n. The equinumeracy of VSASMs and the lozenge tilings is then an easy consequence of this result, which is obtained by specializing the generating functions to signed enumerations for both types of objects and then applying certain sign-reversing involutions. Another main result concerns the expansion of the multivariate generating function into symplectic characters as a sum over totally symmetric self-complementary plane partitions, which is in perfect analogy to the situation for ordinary ASMs where the Schur expansion can be written as a sum over totally symmetric plane partitions. This is exciting as it is reminiscent of the well-known Cauchy identity, and the Cauchy identity does have a bijective proof using the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence, and thus the result raises the question of whether there is a variation of the Robinson–Schensted–Knuth correspondence that does eventually lead to a bijective proof.

We give combinatorially controlled series solutions to Dyson–Schwinger equations with multiple insertion places using tubings of rooted trees and investigate the algebraic relation between such solutions and the renormalization group equation.

The lattice walks in the plane starting at the origin $\mathbf {0}$ with steps in $\{-1,0,1\}^{2}\setminus \{\mathbf {0}\}$ are called king walks. We investigate enumeration and divisibility for higher dimensional king walks confined to certain regions. Specifically, we establish an explicit formula for the number of $(r+s)$-dimensional king walks of length n ending at $(a_1,\ldots ,a_r,b_1,\ldots ,b_s)$ which never dip below $x_i=0$ for $i=1,\ldots ,r$. We also derive divisibility properties for the number of $(r+s)$-dimensional king walks of length p (an odd prime) through group actions.

Let $t\geq 2$ and $k\geq 1$ be integers. A t-regular partition of a positive integer n is a partition of n such that none of its parts is divisible by t. Let $b_{t,k}(n)$ denote the number of hooks of length k in all the t-regular partitions of n. In this article, we prove some inequalities for $b_{t,k}(n)$ for fixed values of k. We prove that for any $t\geq 2$, $b_{t+1,1}(n)\geq b_{t,1}(n)$, for all $n\geq 0$. We also prove that $b_{3,2}(n)\geq b_{2,2}(n)$ for all $n>3$, and $b_{3,3}(n)\geq b_{2,3}(n)$ for all $n\geq 0$. Finally, we state some problems for future works.

We introduce a family of polynomials, which arise in three distinct ways: in the large N expansion of a matrix integral, as a weighted enumeration of factorizations of permutations, and via the topological recursion. More explicitly, we interpret the complex Grassmannian $\mathrm {Gr}(M,N)$ as the space of $N \times N$ idempotent Hermitian matrices of rank M and develop a Weingarten calculus to integrate products of matrix elements over it. In the regime of large N and fixed ratio $\frac {M}{N}$, such integrals have expansions whose coefficients count factorizations of permutations into monotone sequences of transpositions, with each sequence weighted by a monomial in $t = 1 - \frac {N}{M}$. This gives rise to the desired polynomials, which specialise to the monotone Hurwitz numbers when $t = 1$. These so-called deformed monotone Hurwitz numbers satisfy a cut-and-join recursion, a one-point recursion, and the topological recursion. Furthermore, we conjecture on the basis of overwhelming empirical evidence that the deformed monotone Hurwitz numbers are real-rooted polynomials whose roots satisfy remarkable interlacing phenomena. An outcome of our work is the viewpoint that the topological recursion can be used to “topologise” sequences of polynomials, and we claim that the resulting families of polynomials may possess interesting properties.

A partition is called a t-core if none of its hook lengths is a multiple of t. Let $a_t(n)$ denote the number of t-core partitions of n. Garvan, Kim and Stanton proved that for any $n\geq1$ and $m\geq1$, $a_t\big(t^mn-(t^2-1)/24\big)\equiv0\pmod{t^m}$, where $t\in\{5,7,11\}$. Let $A_{t,k}(n)$ denote the number of partition k-tuples of n with t-cores. Several scholars have been subsequently investigated congruence properties modulo high powers of 5 for $A_{5,k}(n)$ with $k\in\{2,3,4\}$. In this paper, by utilizing a recurrence related to the modular equation of fifth order, we establish dozens of congruence families modulo high powers of 5 satisfied by $A_{5,k}(n)$, where $4\leq k\leq25$. Moreover, we deduce an infinite family of internal congruences modulo high powers of 5 for $A_{5,4}(n)$. In particular, we generalize greatly a recent result on a congruence family modulo high powers of 5 enjoyed by $A_{5,4}(n)$, which was proved by Saikia, Sarma and Talukdar (Indian J. Pure Appl. Math., 2024). Finally, we conjecture that there exists a similar phenomenon for $A_{5,k}(n)$ with $k\geq26$.

In this work, we investigate the arithmetic properties of $b_{5^k}(n)$, which counts the partitions of n where no part is divisible by $5^k$. By constructing generating functions for $b_{5^k}(n)$ across specific arithmetic progressions, we establish a set of Ramanujan-type congruences.

Inspired by work of Andrews and Newman [‘Partitions and the minimal excludant’, Ann. Comb. 23 (2019), 249–254] on the minimal excludant or ‘mex’ of partitions, we define four new classes of minimal excludants for overpartitions and establish relations to certain functions due to Ramanujan.

A pebble tree is an ordered tree where each node receives some colored pebbles, in such a way that each unary node receives at least one pebble, and each subtree has either one more or as many leaves as pebbles of each color. We show that the contraction poset on pebble trees is isomorphic to the face poset of a convex polytope called pebble tree polytope. Beside providing intriguing generalizations of the classical permutahedra and associahedra, our motivation is that the faces of the pebble tree polytopes provide realizations as convex polytopes of all assocoipahedra constructed by K. Poirier and T. Tradler only as polytopal complexes.

An identity that is reminiscent of the Littlewood identity plays a fundamental role in recent proofs of the facts that alternating sign triangles are equinumerous with totally symmetric self-complementary plane partitions and that alternating sign trapezoids are equinumerous with holey cyclically symmetric lozenge tilings of a hexagon. We establish a bounded version of a generalization of this identity. Further, we provide combinatorial interpretations of both sides of the identity. The ultimate goal would be to construct a combinatorial proof of this identity (possibly via an appropriate variant of the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence) and its unbounded version, as this would improve the understanding of the mysterious relation between alternating sign trapezoids and plane partition objects.

We give an explicit formula for the Frobenius number of triples associated with the Diophantine equation $x^2+y^2=z^3$, that is, the largest positive integer that can only be represented in p ways by combining the three integers of the solutions of $x^2+y^2=z^3$. For the equation $x^2+y^2=z^2$, the Frobenius number has already been given. Our approach can be extended to the general equation $x^2+y^2=z^r$ for $r>3$.

Given a permutation statistic $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}$, define its inverse statistic $\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}$ by . We give a general approach, based on the theory of symmetric functions, for finding the joint distribution of $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}_{2}$ whenever $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{2}$ are descent statistics: permutation statistics that depend only on the descent composition. We apply this method to a number of descent statistics, including the descent number, the peak number, the left peak number, the number of up-down runs and the major index. Perhaps surprisingly, in many cases the polynomial giving the joint distribution of $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}_{2}$ can be expressed as a simple sum involving products of the polynomials giving the (individual) distributions of $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{2}$. Our work leads to a rederivation of Stanley’s generating function for doubly alternating permutations, as well as several conjectures concerning real-rootedness and $\gamma $-positivity.

The $\lambda $-quiddities of size n are n-tuples of elements of a fixed set, solutions of a matrix equation appearing in the study of Coxeter’s friezes. Their number and properties are closely linked to the structure and the cardinality of the chosen set. Our main objective is an explicit formula giving the number of $\lambda $-quiddities of odd size, and a lower and upper bound for the number of $\lambda $-quiddities of even size, over the rings ${\mathbb {Z}}/2^{m}{\mathbb {Z}}$ ($m \geq 2$). We also give explicit formulae for the number of $\lambda $-quiddities of size n over ${\mathbb {Z}}/8{\mathbb {Z}}$.

In his 1984 AMS Memoir, Andrews introduced the family of functions $c\phi_k(n)$, the number of k-coloured generalized Frobenius partitions of n. In 2019, Chan, Wang and Yang systematically studied the arithmetic properties of $\textrm{C}\Phi_k(q)$ for $2\leq k\leq17$ by utilizing the theory of modular forms, where $\textrm{C}\Phi_k(q)$ denotes the generating function of $c\phi_k(n)$. In this paper, we first establish another expression of $\textrm{C}\Phi_{12}(q)$ with integer coefficients, then prove some congruences modulo small powers of 3 for $c\phi_{12}(n)$ by using some parameterized identities of theta functions due to A. Alaca, S. Alaca and Williams. Finally, we conjecture three families of congruences modulo powers of 3 satisfied by $c\phi_{12}(n)$.

The protection number of a vertex $v$ in a tree is the length of the shortest path from $v$ to any leaf contained in the maximal subtree where $v$ is the root. In this paper, we determine the distribution of the maximum protection number of a vertex in simply generated trees, thereby refining a recent result of Devroye, Goh, and Zhao. Two different cases can be observed: if the given family of trees allows vertices of outdegree $1$, then the maximum protection number is on average logarithmic in the tree size, with a discrete double-exponential limiting distribution. If no such vertices are allowed, the maximum protection number is doubly logarithmic in the tree size and concentrated on at most two values. These results are obtained by studying the singular behaviour of the generating functions of trees with bounded protection number. While a general distributional result by Prodinger and Wagner can be used in the first case, we prove a variant of that result in the second case.

We conduct a systematic study of the Ehrhart theory of certain slices of rectangular prisms. Our polytopes are generalizations of the hypersimplex and are contained in the larger class of polypositroids introduced by Lam and Postnikov; moreover, they coincide with polymatroids satisfying the strong exchange property up to an affinity. We give a combinatorial formula for all the Ehrhart coefficients in terms of the number of weighted permutations satisfying certain compatibility properties. This result proves that all these polytopes are Ehrhart positive. Additionally, via an extension of a result by Early and Kim, we give a combinatorial interpretation for all the coefficients of the $h^*$-polynomial. All of our results provide a combinatorial understanding of the Hilbert functions and the h-vectors of all algebras of Veronese type, a problem that had remained elusive up to this point. A variety of applications are discussed, including expressions for the volumes of these slices of prisms as weighted combinations of Eulerian numbers; some extensions of Laplace’s result on the combinatorial interpretation of the volume of the hypersimplex; a multivariate generalization of the flag Eulerian numbers and refinements; and a short proof of the Ehrhart positivity of the independence polytope of all uniform matroids.

We propose generating functions, $\textrm {RGF}_p(x)$, for the quotients of numerical semigroups which are related to the Sylvester denumerant. Using MacMahon’s partition analysis, we can obtain $\textrm {RGF}_p(x)$ by extracting the constant term of a rational function. We use $\textrm {RGF}_p(x)$ to give a system of generators for the quotient of the numerical semigroup $\langle a_1,a_2,a_3\rangle $ by p for a small positive integer p, and we characterise the generators of ${\langle A\rangle }/{p}$ for a general numerical semigroup A and any positive integer p.

A subset of positive integers F is a Schreier set if it is nonempty and $|F|\leqslant \min F$ (here $|F|$ is the cardinality of F). For each positive integer k, we define $k\mathcal {S}$ as the collection of all the unions of at most k Schreier sets. Also, for each positive integer n, let $(k\mathcal {S})^n$ be the collection of all sets in $k\mathcal {S}$ with maximum element equal to n. It is well known that the sequence $(|(1\mathcal {S})^n|)_{n=1}^\infty $ is the Fibonacci sequence. In particular, the sequence satisfies a linear recurrence. We show that the sequence $(|(k\mathcal {S})^n|)_{n=1}^\infty $ satisfies a linear recurrence for every positive k.

Noting a curious link between Andrews’ even-odd crank and the Stanley rank, we adopt a combinatorial approach building on the map of conjugation and continue the study of integer partitions with parts separated by parity. Our motivation is twofold. Firstly, we derive results for certain restricted partitions with even parts below odd parts. These include a Franklin-type involution proving a parametrized identity that generalizes Andrews’ bivariate generating function, and two families of Andrews–Beck type congruences. Secondly, we introduce several new subsets of partitions that are stable (i.e. invariant under conjugation) and explore their connections with three third-order mock theta functions $\omega (q)$, $\nu (q)$, and $\psi ^{(3)}(q)$, introduced by Ramanujan and Watson.