Some Formulas for Numbers of Restricted Words

Abstract

We define a quantity $c_m(n,k)$ as a generalization of the notion of the composition of the positive integer $n$ into $k$ parts. We proceed to derive some known properties of this quantity. In particular, we relate two partial Bell polynomials, in which the sequence of the variables of one polynomial is the invert transform of the sequence of the variables of the other. We connect the quantities $c_m(n,k)$ and $c_{m-1}(n,k)$ via Pascal matrices. We then relate $c_m(n,k)$ with the numbers of some restricted words over a finite alphabet. We develop a method which transfers some properties of restricted words over an alphabet of $N$ letters to the restricted words over an alphabet of $N+1$ letters. Several examples illustrate our findings. Note that all our results depend solely on the initial arithmetic function $f_0$.