Record statistics in integer compositions

Abstract

A $\textit{composition}$ $\sigma =a_1 a_2 \ldots a_m$ of $n$ is an ordered collection of positive integers whose sum is $n$. An element $a_i$ in $\sigma$ is a strong (weak) $\textit{record}$ if $a_i> a_j (a_i \geq a_j)$ for all $j=1,2,\ldots,i-1$. Furthermore, the position of this record is $i$. We derive generating functions for the total number of strong (weak) records in all compositions of $n$, as well as for the sum of the positions of the records in all compositions of $n$, where the parts $a_i$ belong to a fixed subset $A$ of the natural numbers. In particular when $A=\mathbb{N}$, we find the asymptotic mean values for the number, and for the sum of positions, of records in compositions of $n$.