Introduction to Catalan Numbers

Steven Roman is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at California State University Fullerton.  He is the author of numerous other mathematics textbooks, including Field Theory (2006), Advanced Linear Algebra(2008), Fundamentals of Group Theory (2012), Introduction to the Mathematics of Finance (2012), and An Introduction to Catalan Numbers (2015).

“The pace of this book is of an introductory nature, the coverage of Catalan numbers is rigorous and will provide the reader with a firm grasp of many of the properties of these numbers. … a scholarly work and one that number theorists will find well worth reading.” (James Van Speybroeck, Computing Reviews, April, 2016)“The book is supplemented by a set of exercises for those who want to go further. The reader is helped by 70 carefully designed figures throughout the book. The 24 enumeration problems are selected carefully to show Catalan numbers from very different viewpoints. Several of these problems likely have their most readable write-up in this book. A must for anyone, who wants to understand the significance of Catalan numbers!” (László Székely, zbMATH 1342.05002, 2016)

• Introduction.- Dyck Words.- The Catalan Numbers.- Catalan Numbers and Paths.- Catalan Numbers and Trees.- Catalan Numbers and Geometric Widgits.- Catalan Numbers and Algebraic Widgits.- Catalan Numbers and Interval Structures.- Catalan Numbers and Partitions.- Catalan Numbers and Permutations.- Catalan Numbers and Semiorders.- Exercises.- Solutions and Hints.- Appendix A: A Brief Introduction to Partially Ordered Sets.- Appendix B: A Brief Introduction to Graphs and Trees.- Index.