Explicit formulas conjecture for special symmetric-decomposition polynomials

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Let CkC_k denote the kkth Catalan number, let Nar⁡k(t)\operatorname{Nar}_{k}(t) denote the Narayana polynomial, and define

Nar⁡‾k(j)(t)=∑i=0k−jj+1k+1(k+1i)(k+1i+j+1)ti.\overline{\operatorname{Nar}}_{k}^{(j)}(t)=\sum_{i=0}^{k-j}\frac{j+1}{k+1}\binom{k+1}{i}\binom{k+1}{i+j+1}t^{i}.

Let Wn,k+(t)W_{n,k}^{+}(t) and Wn,k−(t)W_{n,k}^{-}(t) be the symmetric-decomposition polynomials. Special-formula conjecture. For k≥1k\geq1,

W2k,k+(t)=(k−1)CkNar⁡k−1(t),W2k,k−(t)=Ck∑i=0k−1(k−1i)2ti.W_{2k,k}^{+}(t)=(k-1)C_k\operatorname{Nar}_{k-1}(t),\qquad W_{2k,k}^{-}(t)=C_k\sum_{i=0}^{k-1}\binom{k-1}{i}^{2}t^i.

For k≥2k\geq2,

W2k,k+1−(t)=(2kk)Nar⁡k−1(t),W2k,k−1+(t)=−t2(2kk−2)Nar⁡‾k−2(1)(t).W_{2k,k+1}^{-}(t)=\binom{2k}{k}\operatorname{Nar}_{k-1}(t),\qquad W_{2k,k-1}^{+}(t)=-\frac{t}{2}\binom{2k}{k-2}\overline{\operatorname{Nar}}_{k-2}^{(1)}(t).

These formulas are intended to aid the real-rootedness classification; the source gives no proof and no formulas for the other symmetric-decomposition polynomials.

References

Primary source

Miklós Bóna, Stoyan Dimitrov, Gilbert Labelle, Yifei Li, Joseph Pappe, Andrés R. Vindas-Meléndez and Yan Zhuang, “A combinatorial proof of a symmetry for a refinement of the Narayana numbers”, arXiv:2212.10586 (2025).

Additional references

2 papers in this index state this conjecture (2021–2022). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:2101.02131.

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