The Euler and Springer numbers as moment sequences

I study the sequences of Euler and Springer numbers from the point of view of the classical moment problem.Comment: LaTeX2e, 30 pages. Version 2 contains some small clarifications suggested by a referee. Version 3 contains new footnotes 9 and 10. To appear in Expositiones Mathematica

Cumulants, lattice paths, and orthogonal polynomials

A formula expressing free cumulants in terms of the Jacobi parameters of the corresponding orthogonal polynomials is derived. It combines Flajolet's theory of continued fractions and Lagrange inversion. For the converse we discuss Gessel-Viennot theory to express Hankel determinants in terms of various cumulants.Comment: 11 pages, AMS LaTeX, uses pstricks; revised according to referee's suggestions, in particular cut down last section and corrected some wrong attribution

The symmetric and unimodal expansion of Eulerian polynomials via continued fractions

This paper was motivated by a conjecture of Br\"{a}nd\'{e}n (European J. Combin. \textbf{29} (2008), no.~2, 514--531) about the divisibility of the coefficients in an expansion of generalized Eulerian polynomials, which implies the symmetric and unimodal property of the Eulerian numbers. We show that such a formula with the conjectured property can be derived from the combinatorial theory of continued fractions. We also discuss an analogous expansion for the corresponding formula for derangements and prove a $(p,q)$-analogue of the fact that the (-1)-evaluation of the enumerator polynomials of permutations (resp. derangements) by the number of excedances gives rise to tangent numbers (resp. secant numbers). The $(p,q)$-analogue unifies and generalizes our recent results (European J. Combin. \textbf{31} (2010), no.~7, 1689--1705.) and that of Josuat-Verg\`es (European J. Combin. \textbf{31} (2010), no.~7, 1892--1906).Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure

The Rayleigh-Schr\"odinger perturbation series of quasi-degenerate systems

We present the first representation of the general term of the Rayleigh-Schr\"odinger series for quasidegenerate systems. Each term of the series is represented by a tree and there is a straightforward relation between the tree and the analytical expression of the corresponding term. The combinatorial and graphical techniques used in the proof of the series expansion allow us to derive various resummation formulas of the series. The relation with several combinatorial objects used for special cases (degenerate or non-degenerate systems) is established.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Constellations and multicontinued fractions: application to Eulerian triangulations

We consider the problem of enumerating planar constellations with two points at a prescribed distance. Our approach relies on a combinatorial correspondence between this family of constellations and the simpler family of rooted constellations, which we may formulate algebraically in terms of multicontinued fractions and generalized Hankel determinants. As an application, we provide a combinatorial derivation of the generating function of Eulerian triangulations with two points at a prescribed distance.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure