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The following (conjectured) identity has come up in a research problem from representation theory that I am working on:

$$\binom{i}{n-1} =\frac{(n+k+i)!}{(n-1)!(k+i)!} \sum_{j=0}^{n-1} \frac{(-1)^j }{(n+k+i-j)}\binom{n-1}{j} \binom{2n+k-j-2}{n-1}$$

where $k, i, n$ are positive integers and I interpret $\binom{i}{n-1}=i*(i-1)\cdots (i-n+1)/(n-1)!$ even if $i<n-1$. (That is, $\binom{i}{n-1}=0$ if $i<n-1$.)

I've verified the identity holds for small values of $n$, but all of my naive attempts to prove it have failed. Any suggestions for how to prove it would be most appreciated!

1 Answers1

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Let us re-write this as follows:

$${q\choose n} = (n+1) {n+1+k+q\choose n+1} \sum_{j=0}^n \frac{(-1)^j}{n+1+k+q-j} {n\choose j} {2n+k-j\choose n} \\ = (n+1+k+q) {n+k+q\choose n} \sum_{j=0}^n \frac{(-1)^j}{n+1+k+q-j} {n\choose j} {2n+k-j\choose n}.$$

where clearly $q\ge n.$ We have

$${n+k+q\choose n} {n\choose j} = \frac{(n+k+q)!}{(k+q)! j! (n-j)!} = {n+k+q\choose j} {n+k+q-j\choose n-j}.$$

Substititute into the identity to get for the RHS

$$\sum_{j=0}^n (-1)^j {n+k+q+1\choose j} {n+k+q-j\choose n-j} {2n+k-j\choose n}.$$

We put

$${n+k+q-j\choose n-j} = \frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{1}{z^{n-j+1}} (1+z)^{n+k+q-j} \; dz$$

and

$${2n+k-j\choose n} = \frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|w|=\gamma} \frac{1}{w^{n+1}} (1+w)^{2n+k-j} \; dw.$$

Observe that the first of these two vanishes when $j\gt n$ so it provides range control and we may raise the upper limit of the sum to $n+k+q+1.$ We get

$$\frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|w|=\gamma} \frac{1}{w^{n+1}} (1+w)^{2n+k} \frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{1}{z^{n+1}} (1+z)^{n+k+q} \\ \times \sum_{j=0}^{n+k+q+1} {n+k+q+1\choose j} (-1)^j \frac{z^j}{(1+z)^j (1+w)^j} \; dz\; dw \\ = \frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|w|=\gamma} \frac{1}{w^{n+1}} (1+w)^{2n+k} \\ \times \frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{1}{z^{n+1}} (1+z)^{n+k+q} \left(1-\frac{z}{(1+z)(1+w)}\right)^{n+k+q+1} \; dz\; dw \\ = \frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|w|=\gamma} \frac{1}{w^{n+1}} \frac{1}{(1+w)^{q-n+1}} \\ \times \frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{1}{z^{n+1}} \frac{1}{1+z} \left(1+w+wz\right)^{n+k+q+1} \; dz\; dw .$$

We evaluate this using the fact that residues sum to zero. We get for the residue at $z=-1$ (flip sign)

$$-(-1)^{n+1}\frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|w|=\gamma} \frac{1}{w^{n+1}} \frac{1}{(1+w)^{q-n+1}} \; dw \\ = (-1)^{n} \times (-1)^n {q-n+n\choose q-n} \; dw = {q\choose q-n} = {q\choose n}.$$

This is the target result, so we just need to show that the contribution from the residue at infinity is zero. We find

$$-\mathrm{Res}_{z=\infty} \frac{1}{z^{n+1}} \frac{1}{1+z} \left(1+w+wz\right)^{n+k+q+1} \\ = \mathrm{Res}_{z=0} \frac{1}{z^2} z^{n+1} \frac{1}{1+1/z} \left(1+w+w/z\right)^{n+k+q+1} \\ = \mathrm{Res}_{z=0} \frac{1}{z} z^{n+1} \frac{1}{1+z} \frac{1}{z^{n+k+q+1}} \left(z(1+w)+w\right)^{n+k+q+1} \\ = \mathrm{Res}_{z=0} \frac{1}{z^{k+q+1}} \frac{1}{1+z} \left(z(1+w)+w\right)^{n+k+q+1}.$$

Extracting coefficients yields

$$\sum_{p=0}^{k+q} {n+k+q+1\choose k+q-p} (1+w)^{k+q-p} w^{n+p+1} (-1)^{p}.$$

On substituting this into the integral in $w$ we obtain

$$[w^n] \frac{1}{(1+w)^{q-n+1}} \sum_{p=0}^{k+q} {n+k+q+1\choose k+q-p} (1+w)^{k+q-p} w^{n+p+1} (-1)^{p} \\ = \sum_{p=0}^{k+q} {n+k+q+1\choose k+q-p} [w^n] w^{n+p+1} (1+w)^{k+n-p-1} (-1)^{p}.$$

This is zero since

$$[w^n] w^{n+p+1} (1+w)^{k+n-p-1} = [w^0] w^{p+1} (1+w)^{k+n-p-1} = 0$$

(no constant coefficient in $w$ because $p\ge 0$, we can have $k+n-p-1$ positive or negative here since there is never a pole at zero). This concludes the argument. We have shown that the sum indeed evaluates to ${q\choose n}$ as claimed.

Marko Riedel
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