Paired patterns in lattice paths

Abstract

Let $\mathcal{L}_n$ denote the set of all paths from $[0,0]$ to $[n, n]$ which consist of either unit north steps $N$ or unit east steps $E$ or, equivalently, the set of all words $L \in \{E,N\}^*$ with $n$ $E$'s and $n$ $N$'s. Given $L \in \mathcal{L}_n$ and a subset $A$ of $[n] = \{1, \ldots, n\}$, we let $ps_{L}(A)$ denote the word that results from $L$ by removing the $i^{th}$ occurrence of $E$ and the $i^{th}$ occurrence of $N$ in $L$ for all $i \in [n]-A$, reading from left to right. Then we say that a paired pattern $P \in \mathcal{L}_k$ occurs in $L$ if there is some $A \subseteq [n]$ of size $k$ such that $ps_L(A) = P$. In this paper, we study the generating functions of paired pattern matching in $\mathcal L_n$.