December 21, 2008
The powers of matrices with Stirling number-coefficients are investigated. It is revealed that the elements of these matrices have a number of properties of the ordinary Stirling numbers. Moreover, "higher order" Bell, Fubini and Eulerian numbers can be defined. Hence we give a new interpretation for E. T. Bell's iterated exponential integers. In addition, it is worth to note that these numbers appear in combinatorial physics, in the problem of the normal ordering of quantum ...
November 6, 2003
We construct and analyze a family of coherent states built on sequences of integers originating from the solution of the boson normal ordering problem. These sequences generalize the conventional combinatorial Bell numbers and are shown to be moments of positive functions. Consequently, the resulting coherent states automatically satisfy the resolution of unity condition. In addition they display such non-classical fluctuation properties as super-Poissonian statistics and squ...
March 7, 2012
In this paper, we present a Hopf algebra description of a bosonic quantum model, using the elementary combinatorial elements of Bell and Stirling numbers. Our objective in doing this is as follows. Recent studies have revealed that perturbative quantum field theory (pQFT) displays an astonishing interplay between analysis (Riemann zeta functions), topology (Knot theory), combinatorial graph theory (Feynman diagrams) and algebra (Hopf structure). Since pQFT is an inherently co...
April 4, 2022
In this paper, we derive some identities and recurrence relations for the degenerate Stirling numbers of the first kind and of the second kind which are degenerate versions of the ordinary Stirling numbers of the first kind and of the second kind. They are deduced from the normal oderings of degenerate integral powers of the number operator and their inversions, certain relations of boson operators and from the recurrence relations of the Stirling numbers themselves. Here we ...
April 6, 2022
The normal ordering of an integral power of the number operator in terms of boson operators is expressed with the help of the Stirling numbers of the second kind. As a `degenerate version' of this, we consider the normal ordering of a degenerate integral power of the number operator in terms of boson operators, which is represented by means of the degenerate Stirling numbers of the second kind. As an application of this normal ordering, we derive two equations defining the de...
September 24, 2009
The notion of generalized Bell numbers has appeared in several works but there is no systematic treatise on this topic. In this paper we fill this gap. We discuss the most important combinatorial, algebraic and analytic properties of these numbers which generalize the similar properties of the Bell numbers. Most of these results seem to be new. It turns out that in a paper of Whitehead these numbers appeared in a very different context. In addition, we introduce the so-called...
September 22, 2004
We treat the problem of normally ordering expressions involving the standard boson operators a, a* where [a,a*]=1. We show that a simple product formula for formal power series - essentially an extension of the Taylor expansion - leads to a double exponential formula which enables a powerful graphical description of the generating functions of the combinatorial sequences associated with such functions - in essence, a combinatorial field theory. We apply these techniques to so...
August 1, 2013
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the connection between context-free grammars and normal ordering problem, and then to explore various extensions of the Stirling grammar. We present grammatical characterizations of several well known combinatorial sequences, including the generalized Stirling numbers of the second kind related to the normal ordering problem and the $r$-Dowling polynomials. Also, possible avenues for future research are described.
April 21, 2006
For any given sequence of integers there exists a quantum field theory whose Feynman rules produce that sequence. An example is illustrated for the Stirling numbers. The method employed here offers a new direction in combinatorics and graph theory.
June 15, 2021
The Stirling number of a simple graph is the number of partitions of its vertex set into a specific number of non-empty independent sets. In 2015, Engbers et al. showed that the coefficients in the normal ordering of a word $w$ in the alphabet $\{x,D\}$ subject to the relation $Dx=xD+1$ are equal to the Stirling number of certain graphs constructed from $w$. In this paper, we introduce graphical versions of the Stirling numbers of the first kind and the Lah numbers and show h...