Control of cancellations that restrain the growth of a binomial recursion

Abstract

We study a recursion that generates real sequences depending on a parameter $x$. Given a negative $x$ the growth of the sequence is very difficult to estimate due to canceling terms. We reduce the study of the recursion to a problem about a family of integral operators, and prove that for every parameter value except -1, the growth of the sequence is factorial. In the combinatorial part of the proof we show that when $x=-1$ the resulting recurrence yields the sequence of alternating Catalan numbers, and thus has exponential growth. We expect our methods to be useful in a variety of similar situations.