Ordered k-flaw Preferences Sets

TL;DR

This paper studies ordered k-flaw preference sets, establishing bijections with lattice paths and deriving explicit formulas and recurrence relations for counting these sets under various constraints.

Contribution

It introduces bijections between ordered k-flaw preference sets and lattice paths, providing explicit formulas and recurrence relations for their enumeration.

Findings

Established a bijection between preference sets and lattice paths.

Derived explicit formulas for counting preference sets with constraints.

Obtained recurrence relations and generating functions for these sets.

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on ordered $k$-flaw preference sets. Let $\mathcal{OP}_{n,\geq k}$ denote the set of ordered preference sets of length $n$ with at least $k$ flaws and $\mathcal{S}_{n,k}=\{(x_1,...,x_{n-k})\mid x_1+x_2+... +x_{n-k}=n+k, x_i\in\mathbb{N}\}$. We obtain a bijection from the sets $\mathcal{OP}_{n,\geq k}$ to $\mathcal{S}_{n,k}$. Let $\mathcal{OP}_{n,k}$ denote the set of ordered preference sets of length $n$ with exactly $k$ flaws. An $(n,k)$-\emph{flaw path} is a lattice path starting at $(0,0)$ and ending at $(2n,0)$ with only two kinds of steps--rise step: $U=(1,1)$ and fall step: $D=(1,-1)$ lying on the line $y = -k$ and touching this line. Let $\mathcal{D}_{n,k}$ denote the set of $(n, k)$-flaw paths. Also we establish a bijection between the sets $\mathcal{OP}_{n,k}$ and $\mathcal{D}_{n,k}$. Let $op_{n,\geq k,\leq l}^m$ $(op_{n, k, =l}^m)$ denote the number of preference sets $\alpha=(a_1,...,a_n)$ with at least $k$ (exact) flaws and leading term $m$ satisfying $a_i\leq l$ for any $i$ $(\max\{a_i\mid 1\leq i\leq n\}=l)$, respectively. With the benefit of these bijections, we obtain the explicit formulas for $op_{n,\geq k,\leq l}^m$. Furthermore, we give the explicit formulas for $op_{n, k, =l}^m$. We derive some recurrence relations of the sequence formed by ordered $k$-flaw preference sets of length $n$ with leading term $m$. Using these recurrence relations, we obtain the generating functions of some corresponding $k$-flaw preference sets.