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I've been trying to do the following exercise:


The problem

Find the number of all labeled, unordered rooted trees with $n$ vertices and $k$ leaves.

I know that I should try to write an equality for the generating function $T(z,y)$ where we use the following weight for a tree $W$ with $n$ vertices and $k$ leaves:

$\omega(W) = z^{n}y^{k}$

and thus we have $T(z,y) = {\sum}_{_W}\omega(W)$.

After writing the equality I should use the lagrange inversion formula (this is a hint given in the exercise).


My problem

I have troubles with writing the equality for $T(z,y)$. First I tried to write down the first terms of $T(z,y)$ - to look for patterns. Then I tried to write the species of labeled unrooted trees in terms of other species. In both cases I ended up getting more confused.

Could someone give a hint for writing the equation for $T(z,y)$? How do I handle such problems?

2 Answers2

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We start with the combinatorial class

$$\def\textsc#1{\dosc#1\csod} \def\dosc#1#2\csod{{\rm #1{\small #2}}}\mathcal{T} = \mathcal{Z} \times \mathcal{Y} + \mathcal{Z}\times \textsc{SET}_{\ge 1}(\mathcal{T}).$$

This translates into the functional equation $$T(z) = zy + z\times(\exp T(z) - 1) = z\times(-1+y+\exp T(z))$$ or

$$z = \frac{T(z)}{-1+y+\exp T(z)}.$$

Writing

$$T(z) = \sum_{n\ge 1} T_n(y) \frac{z^n}{n!}$$

we are interested in extracting coefficients as per the residue operator

$$\frac{1}{(n-1)!} T_n(y) = [z^{n-1}] T'(z) = \; \underset{z}{\mathrm{res}} \; \frac{1}{z^{n}} T'(z).$$

Now we put $w=T(z)$ so that $dw = T'(z) \; dz$ and use the functional equation to obtain

$$\; \underset{w}{\mathrm{res}} \;\frac{(-1+y+\exp w)^n}{w^{n}}$$

Extracting the coefficient on $[y^k]$ we find

$$[y^k] \; \underset{w}{\mathrm{res}} \;\frac{(-1+y+\exp w)^n}{w^{n}} = {n\choose k} \; \underset{w}{\mathrm{res}} \; \frac{(\exp(w)-1)^{n-k}}{w^{n}}.$$

This yields

$$[y^k] T_n(y) = (n-1)! {n\choose k} [w^{n-1}] (\exp(w)-1)^{n-k} \\ = \frac{n!}{k!} (n-1)! [w^{n-1}] \frac{(\exp(w)-1)^{n-k}}{(n-k)!}.$$

We recognize the EGF of the Stirling numbers of the second kind, getting

$$\bbox[5px,border:2px solid #00A000]{ \frac{n!}{k!} {n-1\brace n-k}.}$$

This is the residue operator from Egorychev's Combinatorial sums.

As a sanity check we find for the number of all rooted trees

$$\sum_{k=1}^n (n-1)! {n\choose k} [w^{n-1}] (\exp(w)-1)^{n-k} \\ = (n-1)! [w^{n-1}] \sum_{k=1}^n {n\choose k} (\exp(w)-1)^{n-k}.$$

Now for $k=0$ we get

$$(n-1)! [w^{n-1}] (\exp(w)-1)^n = 0$$

because $\exp(w)-1 = w + \cdots.$ Hence we may continue with

$$(n-1)! [w^{n-1}] \sum_{k=0}^n {n\choose k} (\exp(w)-1)^{n-k} = (n-1)! [w^{n-1}] \exp(nw) \\ = (n-1)! \frac{n^{n-1}}{(n-1)!} = n^{n-1}$$

and the check goes through (Cayley's formula).

Marko Riedel
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2

Use the analytic method. Your class is a root connected to a non-empty set of trees, or a leaf. Use $\mathcal{Z}$ (and $z$) for inner nodes, $\mathcal{Y}$ (and $y$) for leaves; use $\mathcal{E}$ for the class with one empty object: $$ \mathcal{T} = \mathcal{Z} \star (\mathfrak{S}(\mathcal{T}) \smallsetminus \mathcal{E}) + \mathcal{Z} \mathcal{Y} $$ This translates to: $$ T(z, y) = z (e^{T(z, y)} - 1) + z y $$ Just need to get $T(z, y)$ (or the coefficients) out of this...

vonbrand
  • 27,812
  • Makes sense, but don't you forget the trees with for instance 3 total nodes = 1 root + 2 leaves? Anyway this helped a lot - Thanks! – HelloProfile Apr 21 '14 at 00:36
  • Right, there are no "empty trees" here. Thanks! – vonbrand Apr 21 '14 at 01:27
  • Okay. I'm not completely sure if $\mathcal{T}= \mathcal{Z} \star (\mathfrak{S}(\mathcal{T}) \smallsetminus \mathcal{E})+ \mathcal{Z} \mathcal{Y}$ is correct. I would change it to $\mathcal{T}= \mathcal{Z} \star (\mathfrak{S}(\mathcal{T}) \smallsetminus \mathcal{E})+ \mathcal{Y}$. However you gave me the idea and that what all I asked for (I didn't thought of using $\mathcal{Z}$ and $\mathcal{Y}$ as species). – HelloProfile Apr 23 '14 at 15:11