Generalized Narayana polynomials

For $m, n \geq 0$, the generalized Narayana polynomial is

$$N_{n,m}(x) = \sum_{k=0}^{n} \frac{\binom{n}{k}\binom{n+m}{k}}{\binom{m+k}{k}}\, x^k.$$

For $m = 1$ the coefficients are Narayana numbers; for example $N_{2,1}(x) = 1 + 3x + x^2$. These polynomials are Pólya-frequency, and the Narayana transform $x^n \mapsto N_{n,m}(x)$ preserves Pólya-frequency polynomials.

References

The coefficient normalization is from Jianxi Mao and Lijie Wang, “The Narayana transformation,” arXiv:2607.01572 (2026), Eq. (1.2). The root-location input is D. Dominici, S. J. Johnston, and K. Jordaan, “Real zeros of 2F1 hypergeometric polynomials,” Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 247 (2013), 152–161, which is Lemma 2.5 in Mao–Wang. See also the Narayana real-rootedness examples on symmetricfunctions.com.

Definitions

  • Generalized Narayana polynomials

    RealRooted.narayanaPolynomialsource
    def narayanaPolynomial (m n : ℕ) : ℝ[X] :=
      ∑ k ∈ Finset.range (n + 1), C (narayanaTransformCoeff m n k) * X ^ k
  • Narayana transform

    RealRooted.narayanaTransformsource
    def narayanaTransform (m : ℕ) : ℝ[X] → ℝ[X] :=
      basisTransform (narayanaPolynomial m)

Theorems

  • Generalized Narayana polynomials are real-rootedMain result

    RealRooted.splits_narayanaPolynomialsource
    theorem splits_narayanaPolynomial (m n : ℕ) :
        (narayanaPolynomial m n).Splits
  • Generalized Narayana polynomials are Pólya-frequency

    RealRooted.narayanaPolynomialRootLocationsource
    theorem narayanaPolynomialRootLocation :
        narayanaPolynomialRootLocationStatement
  • The Narayana transform preserves Pólya-frequency polynomialsMain result

    RealRooted.narayanaTransformPreservesPFsource
    theorem narayanaTransformPreservesPF :
        narayanaTransformPreservesPFStatement

Lean source RealRooted/Challenges/Narayana.lean at revision 5827550b.