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Let $d$ be a positive number. There is a two dimensional recurrence relation as follow: $$R(n,m) = R(n-1,m-1) + R(n,m-d)$$ where $R(0,m) = 1$ and $R(n,0) = R(n,1) = \cdots = R(n, d-1) = 1$ for all $n,m>0$.

How to analyze the asymptotics of $R(n, kn)$ for fixed $k$? It is easy to see that $$R(n, kn) = O\left( c_{k,d}^{n} \cdot (n+k+d)^{O(1)} \right)$$ Is there a way (or an algorithm) to find $c_{k,d}$ given $k$ and $d$?

PS: I have calcuated the bivariate generating function of $R(\cdot, \cdot)$: \begin{align} f(x,y) &= \frac{1 - xy - y^{d} + xy^{d}}{(1 - x)(1 - y)(1 - xy - y^{d})} \\ &= \frac{1}{(1 - x)(1 - y)} + \frac{xy^{d}}{(1 - x)(1 - y)(1 - xy - y^{d})} \\ \end{align}

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  • $\begingroup$ For $k=1$ the gf seems to be $\frac1{1-t-t^d}$, right? $\endgroup$ Feb 16, 2022 at 8:51
  • $\begingroup$ @მამუკაჯიბლაძე You mean the generating function of $T(n) = R(n, n)$? I am not sure. $\endgroup$
    – Blanco
    Feb 16, 2022 at 8:58
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    $\begingroup$ @მამუკაჯიბლაძე Yes, that is right, there was a question when $d=1$, math.stackexchange.com/questions/2065067/… $\endgroup$
    – Blanco
    Feb 16, 2022 at 9:05
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    $\begingroup$ If you add $y-y$ to the numerator of $f$ you can split it into $$f(x,y) = \frac{1}{(1 - x)(1 - xy - y^d)} + \frac{\sum_{i=1}^{d-1} y^i}{1 - xy - y^d}$$ The second term is easy to extract coefficients from, but the first one is messy. $\endgroup$ Feb 16, 2022 at 12:03
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    $\begingroup$ More generally,$$R(n,m)=\sum_{j=0}^n\binom{\left[\frac{m-j+1}d\right]+j-1}j$$ $\endgroup$ Feb 16, 2022 at 14:31

4 Answers 4

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Your generating function $f(x,y)$ is convergent on a polydisk $|x|<\epsilon$, $|y|< \delta$, for some $\epsilon, \delta < 1$. We can reduce $\epsilon$ so that $\epsilon \ll \delta^k$ and the domain of $f(x,y)$ to the product of the polydisk $|x|<\epsilon$ and the annulus $\delta' < |y| < \delta$, with $\delta' \sim \delta$. Then $g(z,y) = f(z/y^k, y)$ is well-defined and analytic on the product domain of $|z|\lesssim \epsilon/\delta^k$ and $\delta' < |y| < \delta$. The generating function $g(z,y)$ has a unique expansion that is a power series in $z$ and a Laurent series in $y$. Since $x^n y^m = (z/y^k)^n y^m = z^n y^{m-kn}$, the coefficients $R(n,kn)$ are the coefficients of $z^n y^0$ in this double expansion. Hence, using the Cauchy integral formula, the generating function for $R(n,kn)$ is now given by the contour integral $$ \sum_{n=0}^\infty R(n,kn) z^n = \frac{1}{2\pi i} \oint_{|y|\sim \delta} g(z,y) \frac{dy}{y} . $$ Of course, the integration contour is now allowed to deform, as long as it doesn't hit any singularities of the integrand.

The above integrand has a convenient partial fraction expansion expansion with respect to $z$, $$ \frac{g(z,y)}{y} = \frac{y^k}{(1-y-y^d)(y^k-z)} - \frac{y^{d+k-1}(1-y^d)}{(1-y)(1-y-y^d) (y^{k-1} (1-y^d)-z)} . $$ Expanding in $z$ under the integral gives the formula $$ R(n,kn) = \frac{1}{2\pi i} \oint \frac{dy}{y^{kn} (1-y-y^d)} - \frac{1}{2\pi i} \oint \frac{y^d dy}{(1-y)(1-y-y^d) y^{n(k-1)} (1-y^d)^n} , $$ whose leading asymptotics can be estimated by residues or steepest descent.

Using residues on the first term, all the contributions come from the roots of $1-y-y^d=0$. The root with the smallest magnitude $y_*$ will give the leading contribution. Some experimentation shows that $y_*$ is the unique positive real root. The leading asymptotic term then looks like $$ C_* y_*^{-kn} . $$ In the special case $d=1$, $y_* = 1/2$. In the special case $k=1$, the second term has no poles inside its contour and hence evaluates to zero. So in the sequel we can assume that $k>1$.

Applying steepest descent to the second integral, we find the stationary phase points at the roots $y_\star$ of $y^d = (k-1)/(k+d-1) + O(1/n)$. Let $y_\star$ be that root (actually we just need its $n\to \infty$ limit) which minimizes the magnitude of $y_\star^{k-1} (1-y_\star^d)$. It is easy too see that $y_\star = \sqrt[d]{(k-1)/(d+k-1)}$. Then the leading asymptotic term is $$ C_\star n^{-1/2} y_\star^{-n(k-1)} (1-y_\star^d)^{-n} = C_\star n^{-1/2} w_\star^{-kn} , $$ where $w_\star = \left(\frac{k-1}{d+k-1}\right)^{\frac{1-1/k}{d}} \left(\frac{d}{d+k-1}\right)^{1/k} = \frac{s^{s/k}}{(s+1)^{(s+1)/k}}$ with $s=(k-1)/d$, as pointed out in the comments.

The conclusion is that $$ R(n,kn) = O\left((\min(y_*,w_\star)^{-k})^n\right) . $$

Experimentation suggests that $y_* < w_\star$ in all cases, except for $(k,d)=(2,1)$, when $y_* = w_\star = 1/2$. Otherwise the $y_*$ contribution always seems to dominate over the $w_\star$ contribution. At least that's how it seemed for not too large values of $d$.

Doing some rudimentary asymptotic calculations for large $d$, it seems that $y_* \sim 1- \frac{\log d}{d} + o(\log(d)/d)$. A better approximation is $$ y_* \sim 1 - \frac{W(d)}{d} + \frac{W(d)^3}{2(W(d)+1) d^2} + O(W(d)^3/d^3) , $$ where $W(d)$ is the Lambert W function. On the other hand, $w_\star$ has a minimum as a function of $k$ (treating it as a continuous variable) around $k_\star \sim W(d) + 1 + O(W(d)^2/d)$, the minimum reaches roughly $$ w_\star \sim 1 - \frac{W(d)}{d-1} \lesssim y_* . $$ One should push the asymptotics of $k_\star$ one more order to get a better estimate of the difference, but experiments do show that the minimum of $w_\star$ does dip below $y_*$, for instance this happens near $(k,d) = (5, 205)$ or $(6,700)$. So it looks like the $w_\star$ asymptotic contribution will dominate in small ranges of $k \sim k_\star(d)$ if it happens to fall near an integer. To get the size of that window, one could go to a quadratic Taylor approximation of $w_\star$.

With a bit of extra work, one could also extract the coefficients $C_*$ and $C_\star$ from the integral formula.

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks, I mean the asymptotics is $C^{n} \cdot n^{O(1)}$. I am considering the exact expression of $C$ which depends on $k$ and $d$ only. $\endgroup$
    – Blanco
    Feb 16, 2022 at 15:07
  • $\begingroup$ @Blanco I see, my bad. Sorry, I missed the exponent $n$ on your $c_{k,d}^n$. Then this approach suggests that the largest of $y_*^{-k}$ and $y_\star^{-k} (1-y_\star^d)^{-1}$ is the base of the leading exponential asymptotic. $\endgroup$ Feb 16, 2022 at 16:20
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks a lot, very well explained. The root of $1-y-y^d$ makes sense, since it is the characteristic equation of the linear 1-dimensional recurrence relation of $R(n) = R(n-1) + R(n-d)$. As for the second root, how to caluate it, does it mean $y_{\star} = \sqrt[d]{(k-1)/(k+d-1)}$? $\endgroup$
    – Blanco
    Feb 17, 2022 at 6:22
  • $\begingroup$ @Blanco Yes, that's right. $\endgroup$ Feb 17, 2022 at 7:39
  • $\begingroup$ According to Iosif Pinelis's and my results, the second base should be $y_{\star}^{-(k-1)} \cdot (1 - y_{\star}^d)^{-1}$ which is equal to $(s+1)^{s+1}/s^s$ where $s = (k-1)/d$. Do I miss something? $\endgroup$
    – Blanco
    Feb 17, 2022 at 8:22
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This is to complement Blanco's answer by showing that \begin{equation*} R(n,kn)=\exp\{(C_{k,d}+o(1))\,n\} \tag{0}\label{0} \end{equation*} (as $n\to\infty$), where $k\ge1$ and $d\ge1$ (are fixed), \begin{equation*} C_{k,d}:=\frac k{1+y_{k,d}\,d}\,\big(\ln(1+y_{k,d})+y_{k,d}\,\ln(1+1/y_{k,d})\big), \end{equation*} \begin{equation*} y_{k,d}:=\max\Big(x_d,\frac{k-1}d\Big), \end{equation*} and $x_d$ is the unique positive root of the equation \begin{equation*} x_d(1+x_d)^{d-1}=1. \tag{0.5}\label{0.5} \end{equation*}

In view of Blanco's answer, it is enough to show that \begin{equation*} B(n):=B(n,kn)=\exp\{(C_{k,d}+o(1))\,n\}, \tag{1}\label{1} \end{equation*} where \begin{equation*} B(n):=\max\{c_{a,b}\colon (a,b)\in E_{n,k,d}\}, \end{equation*} \begin{equation*} E_{n,k,d}:=\{(a,b)\colon 0\le a\le n-1,b\ge0,bd+a\le kn-d,\ a,b \text{ are integers}\}, \end{equation*} \begin{equation*} c_{a,b}:=\binom{a+b}b=\binom{a+b}a. \end{equation*} Note that $c_{a,b}$ is increasing in $a$ and in $b$.

Note also that $c_{a,b}=(a+b)^{O(1)}=n^{O(1)}$ for $(a,b)\in E_{n,k,d}$ if $a=O(1)$ or $b=O(1)$.

So, it remains to consider the case when $a\to\infty$ and $b\to\infty$. Then, by Stirling's formula, \begin{equation*} \begin{aligned} \ln c_{a,b}\sim a\ln(1+b/a)+b\ln(1+a/b). \end{aligned} \tag{2}\label{2} \end{equation*}

Also, \begin{equation*} \begin{aligned} \frac{c_{a+d,b-1}}{c_{a,b}}&=b\frac{(a+d+1)\cdots(a+d+b-1)}{(a+1)\cdots(a+b)} \\ &= b\frac{(a+b+1)\cdots(a+b+d-1)}{(a+1)\cdots(a+d)} \\ &\sim b\frac{(a+b)^{d-1}}{a^d} =\frac ba\Big(1+\frac ba\Big)^{d-1}. \end{aligned} \end{equation*} So, for a fixed value of $bd+a$, the maximum of $c_{a,b}$ occurs when $b/a\to x_d$ (recall \eqref{0.5}).

Let now $(a,b)\in E_{n,k,d}$ be a maximizer of $c_{a,b}$ (such that $a\to\infty$ and $b\to\infty$). Then, since $c_{a,b}$ is increasing in $a$ and in $b$, we have \begin{equation*} bd+a\sim kn. \end{equation*}

The conditions $b/a\to x_d$ and $bd+a\sim kn$ imply \begin{equation*} a\sim k\frac1{1+x_d\,d}\,n, \tag{3}\label{3} \end{equation*} and the latter condition is compatible with condition $a\le n-1$ only if \begin{equation*} k\frac1{1+x_d\,d}\le1. \tag{4}\label{4} \end{equation*}

If this is the case, then \begin{equation*} b\sim k\frac{x_d}{1+x_d\,d}\,n, \end{equation*} so that, by \eqref{2}, \begin{equation*} \begin{aligned} \frac{\ln c_{a,b}}n\to \frac k{1+x_d\,d}\,(\ln(1+x_d)+x_d\,\ln(1+1/x_d)). \end{aligned} \tag{5}\label{5} \end{equation*} Also, \eqref{4} implies $x_d\ge(k-1)/d$, so that $y_{k,d}=x_d$. So, we have proved \eqref{1}, and thus \eqref{0} -- in the case when condition (3) is compatible with condition $a\le n-1$.

Otherwise, we have $a=n-1\sim n$ and still $bd+a\sim kn$, whence $b\sim(k-1)n/d$. So, by \eqref{2}, here \begin{equation*} \begin{aligned} \frac{\ln c_{a,b}}n\to \ln\Big(1+\frac{k-1}d\Big)+\frac{k-1}d\,\ln\Big(1+\frac d{k-1}\Big). \end{aligned} \tag{6}\label{6} \end{equation*} Also, in this "incompatibility" case, we have $k\frac1{1+x_d\,d}\ge1$ -- cf. \eqref{4}. So, here $x_d\le(k-1)/d$ and hence $y_{k,d}=\frac{k-1}d$. So, we have proved \eqref{1}, and thus \eqref{0} -- in the case when condition (3) is incompatible with condition $a\le n-1$.

Thus, in either case, \eqref{0} is proved. $\quad\Box$

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The book Analytic Combinatorics in Several Variables by Pemantle and Wilson covers problems like this extensively.

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This is a part of my approach, and I have not finished.

Firstly, $$ \frac{1}{(1-x)(1-y)} = \sum_{i,j \geq 0} x^{i}y^{j} $$ and $$ \frac{1}{1 - xy - y^{d}} = \sum_{i \geq 0} \frac{x^{i}y^{i}}{(1 - y^{d})^{i + 1}} = \sum_{i, j \geq 0} \binom{i + j}{j} x^{i}y^{jd + i}$$

Thus \begin{align} \frac{1}{(1 - x)(1 - y)(1 - xy - y^{d})} = &\left( \sum_{i,j \geq 0} x^{i}y^{j} \right) \cdot \left( \sum_{i, j \geq 0} \binom{i + j}{j} x^{i}y^{jd + i} \right) \\ = &\sum_{i,j \geq 0} \sum_{a \leq i, bd + a \leq j} \binom{a + b}{b} x^{i}y^{j} \\ \end{align} We have $$f(x, y) = \sum_{i,j \geq 0} \left( 1 + \sum_{a \leq i - 1, bd + a \leq j - d} \binom{a + b}{b} \right) x^{i}y^{j}$$ and $$R(n, m) = 1 + \sum_{a + 1 \leq n, (b + 1)d + a \leq m} \binom{a + b}{b}$$


Let $$B(n,m) = \max_{a + 1 \leq n, (b + 1)d + a \leq m} \binom{a + b}{b}$$ then we have $$B(n,m) \leq R(n,m) \leq nmB(n,m)$$ Thus $R(n, m) = O(B(n,m))\cdot (nm)^{O(1)}$

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