Can this sum be simplified: $\sum \limits_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}}$
Or at least is there a simple fairly tight upperbound?
EDIT
So I think this sum is more easily bounded than I previously thought:
Clearly, $$\sum_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}} \cdot \leq 2^{\sqrt{n}} \sum_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} = 2^{n+\sqrt{n}} .$$
Also, along the same lines as Shai Covo's answer, $\sum \limits_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}} \geq \binom{n}{n/2} 2^{\sqrt{n/2}}$. The central binomial coefficient: $\binom{n}{n/2}$ is at least $\frac{2^n}{\sqrt{2n}}$, hence $$\sum_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}} \geq 2^{\sqrt{n/2}} \cdot \frac{2^n}{\sqrt{2n}} = \frac{2^{n + \sqrt{n/2}}}{2n}$$
So $\sum \limits_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}}$ is $O(2^{n + \sqrt{n}})$ and $\Omega(\frac{2^{n+\sqrt{n/2}}}{n})$
What about expressions of the form:
$\sum \limits_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} a^{\sqrt{k}} b^{\sqrt{n-k}}$?
Best Answer
I will only give some simple and useful estimate (confirmed by numerical results, based on some mathematical idea). It is essentially a lower bound, but can probably be easily modified to be an upper bound. Moreover, it might give you further ideas.
Denote your expression by $\varphi_n$, and consider a random variable $X$ with binomial$(n,1/2)$ distribution. Then $$ {\rm E}\big[2^{\sqrt X } \big] = \sum\limits_{k = 0}^n {2^{\sqrt k } {n \choose k}\frac{1}{{2^n }}} = \frac{1}{{2^n }}\varphi _n. $$ The left-hand side is actually the moment-generating function $M(t)$ of $\sqrt{X}$ at $t=\ln2$, but we will not use this fact. I have plotted the function $2^{\sqrt{x}}$, $x > 0$, and it seems that this function is typically convex (it is not convex near $0$). So, heuristically, Jensen's inequality suggests the following result: $$ {\rm E}\big[2^{\sqrt X } \big] > 2^{\sqrt {{\rm E}[X]} }, $$ for all sufficiently large $n$. (If $n$ is large, then $X$ typically takes values in a set on which $2^{\sqrt{x}}$ is convex.) Finally, ${\rm E}[X]=n/2$ leads to $2^{ - n} \varphi _n > 2^{\sqrt {n/2} }$, that is $$ \sum\limits_{k = 0}^n {{n \choose k} 2^{\sqrt k } } > 2^{n + \sqrt {n/2} }, $$ for all sufficiently large $n$. Numerical results indicate that this inequality holds for all $n \geq 6$. Moreover, the results suggest that the (lower-)bound is quite tight (I checked for $n \leq 150$). So, a tight upper-bound is likely to be something not far from $2^{n + \sqrt {n/2}}$.
EDIT: We can also employ the strong law of large numbers (SLLN) to show that $\varphi_n$ may be expected to behave something like $2^{n + \sqrt {n/2}}$ for large $n$. Indeed, writing $X$ as $Y_1 + \cdots + Y_n$, where $Y_i$ are i.i.d. rv's with ${\rm P}(Y_i = 0) = {\rm P}(Y_i = 1) = 1/2$, we have $$ \varphi _n = 2^n {\rm E}\bigg[2^{\sqrt n \sqrt {\frac{{Y_1 + \cdots + Y_n }}{n}} } \bigg]. $$ By SLLN, $\frac{{\sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n {Y_i } }}{n}$ converges to $1/2 \,(= {\rm E}[Y_1])$ almost surely, and the conclusion follows.