Stirling operators in spatial combinatorics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spatial extension of Stirling numbers using infinite-dimensional configurations, defining Stirling operators that connect combinatorics, point processes, and quantum ordering in a new spatial context.

Contribution

It develops a novel spatial analogue of Stirling numbers as operators acting on measures and functions over configuration spaces, linking combinatorics with spatial point processes and quantum algebra.

Findings

Defined spatial Stirling operators of the first and second kind.

Established duality relations between measures and functions in configuration spaces.

Connected the operators to Poisson point processes and Wick ordering in quantum mechanics.

Abstract

We define and study a spatial (infinite-dimensional) counterpart of Stirling numbers. In classical combinatorics, the Pochhammer symbol $(m)_n$ can be extended from a natural number $m\in\mathbb N$ to the falling factorials $(z)_n=z(z-1)\dotsm (z-n+1)$ of an argument $z$ from $\mathbb F=\mathbb R\text{ or }\mathbb C$, and Stirling numbers of the first and second kinds are the coefficients of the expansions of $(z)_n$ through $z^k$, $k\leq n$ and vice versa. When taking into account spatial positions of elements in a locally compact Polish space $X$, we replace $\mathbb N$ by the space of configurations -- discrete Radon measures $\gamma=\sum_i\delta_{x_i}$ on $X$, where $\delta_{x_i}$ is the Dirac measure with mass at $x_i$.The spatial falling factorials $(\gamma)_n:=\sum_{i_1}\sum_{i_2\ne i_1}\dotsm\sum_{i_n\ne i_1,\dots, i_n\ne i_{n-1}}\delta_{(x_{i_1},x_{i_2},\dots,x_{i_n})}$ can be naturally extended to mappings $M^{(1)}(X)\ni\omega\mapsto (\omega)_n\in M^{(n)}(X)$, where $M^{(n)}(X)$ denotes the space of $\mathbb F$-valued, symmetric (for $n\ge2$) Radon measures on $X^n$. There is a natural duality between $M^{(n)}(X)$ and the space $\mathcal {CF}^{(n)}(X)$ of $\mathbb F$-valued, symmetric continuous functions on $X^n$ with compact support. The Stirling operators of the first and second kind, $\mathbf{s}(n,k)$ and $\mathbf{S}(n,k)$, are linear operators, acting between spaces $\mathcal {CF}^{(n)}(X)$ and $\mathcal {CF}^{(k)}(X)$ such that their dual operators, acting from $M^{(k)}(X)$ into $M^{(n)}(X)$, satisfy $(\omega)_n=\sum_{k=1}^n\mathbf{s}(n,k)^*\omega^{\otimes k}$ and $\omega^{\otimes n}=\sum_{k=1}^n\mathbf{S}(n,k)^*(\omega)_k$, respectively. We derive combinatorial properties of the Stirling operators, present their connections with a generalization of the Poisson point process and with the Wick ordering under the canonical commutation relations.