Quadrant Marked Mesh Patterns and the r-Stirling Numbers

Abstract

Marked mesh patterns are a very general type of permutation pattern. We examine a particular marked mesh pattern originally defined by Kitaev and Remmel, and show that its generating function is described by the $r$-Stirling numbers. We examine some ramifications of various properties of the $r$-Stirling numbers for this generating function, and find (seemingly new) formulas for the $r$-Stirling numbers in terms of the classical Stirling numbers and harmonic numbers. We also answer some questions posed by Kitaev and Remmel and show a connection to another mesh pattern introduced by Kitaev and Liese.