Combinatorial identity: $\sum\limits_{k=0}^{i\land j}\binom ik(-1)^k\binom{i+j-k}i=1$

binomial-coefficientsbirth-death-processcombinatoricssummation

Let $i,j\in\mathbb Z_{\ge0}$ be nonnegative integers. How can we prove
$$\sum_{k=0}^{i\land j}\binom ik(-1)^k\binom{i+j-k}i=1?$$
(Here, $i\land j=\min(i,j)=\min\{i,j\}=\min(\{i,j\})$ is the minimum of $i$ and $j.$ This problem comes from my study of stationary distributions of birth-death chains.)

By the identity
$$\binom ik\binom{i+j-k}i=\frac{(i+j-k)!}{k!(i-k)!(j-k)!}=\binom{i+j-k}{k,i-k,j-k},$$
we have
$$\sum_{k=0}^{i\land j}\binom ik(-1)^k\binom{i+j-k}i=\sum_{k=0}^{i\land j}(-1)^k\binom{i+j-k}{k,i-k,j-k}.$$
I was thinking of using the trinomial theorem, but I don't see how — the form of the sum seems a bit different.

Best Answer

Suppose that you want to count the $i$-element subsets of $[i]=\{1,2,\ldots,i\}$. Of course there’s only one of them, but we can also count them by the following roundabout procedure. We first expand the set from which we’re drawing the $i$-element subset to $[i+j]=\{1,\ldots,i+j\}$. Now for each $\ell\in[i]$ let $A_\ell$ be the family of $i$-element subsets of $[i+j]$ that do not contain $\ell$; $\bigcup_{\ell=1}^iA_\ell$ is the family of $i$-elements subsets of $[i+j]$ that are not subsets of $[i]$. By the inclusion-exclusion principle we have

$$\begin{align*} \left|\bigcup_{\ell=1}^iA_\ell\right|&=\sum_{\varnothing\ne I\subseteq[i]}(-1)^{|I|+1}\left|\bigcap_{\ell\in I}A_\ell\right|\\ &=\sum_{k=1}^i\binom{i}k(-1)^{k+1}\binom{i+j-k}i\;, \end{align*}$$

since each non-empty $I\subseteq[i]$ has cardinality in $[i]$, for each $k\in[i]$ there are $\binom{i}k$ subsets of $[i]$ of cardinality $k$, and if $|I|=k$,

$$\left|\bigcap_{\ell\in I}A_\ell\right|=\binom{i+j-k}i\;.$$

There are $\binom{i+j}i$ $i$-element subsets of $[i+j]$ altogether, so after we throw out the ones not contained in $[i]$, we have left

$$\begin{align*} \binom{i+j}i&-\sum_{k=1}^i\binom{i}k(-1)^{k+1}\binom{i+j-k}i\\ &=\binom{i+j}i+\sum_{k=1}^i\binom{i}k(-1)^k\binom{i+j-k}i\\ &=\sum_{k\ge 0}\binom{i}k(-1)^k\binom{i+j-k}i\;, \end{align*}$$

and we already know that this is $1$.

Note that there is no need to specify an upper limit on the summation: $\binom{i}k=0$ when $k>i$, and $\binom{i+j-k}i=0$ when $k>j$, so all terms with $k>i\land j$ are $0$ anyway.

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