On a conjecture of Wilf

Let n and k be natural numbers and let S(n,k) denote the Stirling numbers of the second kind. It is a conjecture of Wilf that the alternating sum \sum_{j=0}^{n} (-1)^{j} S(n,j) is nonzero for all n>2. We prove this conjecture for all n not congruent to 2 and not congruent to 2944838 modulo 3145728 and discuss applications of this result to graph theory, multiplicative partition functions, and the irrationality of p-adic series.Comment: 18 pages, final version, accepted for publication in the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series

Chebyshev Series Expansion of Inverse Polynomials

An inverse polynomial has a Chebyshev series expansion 1/\sum(j=0..k)b_j*T_j(x)=\sum'(n=0..oo) a_n*T_n(x) if the polynomial has no roots in [-1,1]. If the inverse polynomial is decomposed into partial fractions, the a_n are linear combinations of simple functions of the polynomial roots. If the first k of the coefficients a_n are known, the others become linear combinations of these with expansion coefficients derived recursively from the b_j's. On a closely related theme, finding a polynomial with minimum relative error towards a given f(x) is approximately equivalent to finding the b_j in f(x)/sum_(j=0..k)b_j*T_j(x)=1+sum_(n=k+1..oo) a_n*T_n(x), and may be handled with a Newton method providing the Chebyshev expansion of f(x) is known.Comment: LaTeX2e, 24 pages, 1 PostScript figure. More references. Corrected typos in (1.1), (3.4), (4.2), (A.5), (E.8) and (E.11

On the non-quadraticity of values of the q-exponential function and related q-series

We investigate arithmetic properties of values of the entire function $$F(z)=F_q(z;\lambda)=\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{z^n}{\prod_{j=1}^n(q^j-\lambda)}, \qquad |q|>1, \quad \lambda\notin q^{\mathbb Z_{>0}},$$ that includes as special cases the Tschakaloff function ($\lambda=0$) and the $q$-exponential function ($\lambda=1$). In particular, we prove the non-quadraticity of the numbers $F_q(\alpha;\lambda)$ for integral $q$, rational $\lambda$ and $\alpha\notin-\lambda q^{\mathbb Z_{>0}}$, $\alpha\ne0$.Comment: 27 page