An extension of the Lindstr\"om-Gessel-Viennot theorem

Abstract

Consider a weighted directed acyclic graph $G$ having an upward planar drawing. We give a formula for the total weight of the families of non-intersecting paths on $G$ with any given starting and ending points. While the Lindstr\"om-Gessel-Viennot theorem gives the signed enumeration of these weights (according to the connection type), our result provides the straight count, expressing it as a determinant whose entries are signed counts of lattice paths with given starting and ending points.