On limiting distributions of Graham, Knuth, Patashnik recurrences

Abstract

Graham, Knuth and Patashnik in their book Concrete Mathematics called for development of a general theory of the solutions of recurrences defined by $$\left|{ n\atop k}\right|=(\alpha n+\beta k+\gamma)\left|{n-1\atop k}\right|+(\alpha' n+\beta' k+\gamma')\left|{n-1\atop k-1}\right|+I_{n=k=0}$$ for $0\le k\le n$ and six parameters $\alpha,\beta,\gamma,\alpha'\beta',\gamma'$. Since then, a number of authors investigated various properties of the solutions of these recurrences. In this note we consider a probabilistic aspect, namely we consider the limiting distributions of sequences of integer valued random variables naturally associated with the solutions of such recurrences. We will give a complete description of the limiting behavior when $\alpha'=0$ and the remaining five parameters are non--negative.