A Refinement of the Formula for $k$-ary Trees and the Gould-Vandermonde's Convolution

Abstract

In this paper, we present an involution on some kind of colored $k$-ary trees which provides a combinatorial proof of a combinatorial sum involving the generalized Catalan numbers $C_{k,\gamma}(n)={\gamma\over k n+\gamma}{k n+\gamma\choose n}$. From the combinatorial sum, we refine the formula for $k$-ary trees and obtain an implicit formula for the generating function of the generalized Catalan numbers which obviously implies a Vandermonde type convolution generalized by Gould. Furthermore, we also obtain a combinatorial sum involving a vector generalization of the Catalan numbers by an extension of our involution.