set partitions with successions and separations滇池流域和分色设置分区.pdf

SET PARTITIONS WITH SUCCESSIONS AND SEPARATIONS AUGUSTINE O. MUNAGI Received 31 August 2004 Partitions of the set {1,2,... , n} are classified as having successions if a block contains con- secutive integers, and separated otherwise. This paper constructs enumeration formulas for such set partitions and some variations using Stirling numbers of the second kind. 1. Introduction The number of ways of partitioning a set of m elements into k nonempty subsets (called classes or blocks) is given by s2(m, k), the Stirling number of the second kind. Without loss of generality we assume that the m elements have been labeled 1,2, ... , m and consider k-partitions of the set [m] = {1,2,... , m}. Substantial information on set partitions can be found in [3, 8]. For connections of set partitions with the combinatorics of distributions and occupancy, to which the objects considered in this paper are also related, see [2, 5]. Essential properties of the numbers s2(m, k) can be found in [3, 7]. Definition 1.1. A partition of [m] is said to be t-separated (t ≥ 1) if the difference be- tween every pair of integers in each class exceeds t − 1 in absolute value. Denote the set t t of t-separated k-partitions of [m] by H (m, k), and let h (m, k) represent the cardinality t t |H (m, k)| of H (m, k). It follows that h1(m, k) = s2(m, k). For example, members of H 3 (10,4) include {1,4,7} {2,5,8}{3,6,9}{10}, {1,4,7,10}{2,6,9}{3}{5,8}, and {1,4,8}{2,5,9}{3,7}{6,10}. Separated combinations of elements of [m] have been considered in [2, page 65], [5, page 198], [8, page 20], and [9, page 26]. Our terminology is adapted from [2, page 65]. The set H 2 (m, k), which can also be described as the set of nonconsecutive partitions of [m], has already found an application in the enumeration of complementing systems of subsets of {0,1, ... , m − 1} (see [4]). Partitions