Counting walks in a quadrant: a unified approach via boundary value problems

  • Kilian Raschel

    Université François Rabelais, Tours, France

Abstract

The aim of this article is to introduce a unified method to obtain explicit integral representations of the trivariate generating function counting the walks with small steps which are confined to a quarter plane. For many models, this yields for the first time an explicit expression of the counting generating function. Moreover, the nature of the integrand of the integral formulations is shown to be directly dependent on the finiteness of a naturally attached group of birational transformations as well as on the sign of the covariance of the walk.

Cite this article

Kilian Raschel, Counting walks in a quadrant: a unified approach via boundary value problems. J. Eur. Math. Soc. 14 (2012), no. 3, pp. 749–777

DOI 10.4171/JEMS/317