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Tagged with elementary-proofs co.combinatorics
4 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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A combinatorial proof for equality of two $q$-series
Consider the following two $q$-series
\begin{align*}
f(q):&=\sum_{k=1}^{\infty} \frac{(-1)^{k-1}(1 + q^k)\,q^{\binom{k + 1}2}}{(1 - q^k)^2} \qquad \text{and} \\
g(q):&=\frac1{\prod_{j=1}^{\...
2
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Asking for a combinatorial proof of a binomial-sum
QUESTION. Is there a combinatorial proof of the below identity?
$$\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}\frac{2^{2k}}{2k+1}\frac{\binom{2n}n}{\binom{2k}k}=2^{2n}-\binom{2n}n.$$
REMARK. There are many other proofs (...
2
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109
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Average number of pieces of a random piecewise-linear function
Let $I$ be a (nonempty) compact interval in $\mathbb R$ and $a_1,b_1,\ldots,a_L,b_L \in \mathbb R$. Let $\varphi$ be a piecewise function with $T \ge 2$ pieces(for example $T=2$ for the choice $\...
2
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Bounds for $\sum_{t=1}^Tn_t(s_t)^{-\alpha}\mu(s_t)$ where $n_t(s) = \sum_{1 \le t' \le t} 1_{\{s_{t'}=s\}}$ for $s \in [k]$ and $\mu \in \Delta_k$
Disclaimer: I'm not certain this is the right venue for this post, but I'll give it a try...
So trying prove some bounds in my ongoing work in theoretical reinforcement learning, I encountered the ...