Stirling number

There are two kinds of Stirling numbers: Stirling numbers of the first kind and Stirling numbers of the second kind. They appear in many situations in combinatorics.

Stirling Numbers of the First Kind

The Stirling number of the first kind $c(n, k)$ is the number of permutations of an $n$ -element set with exactly $k$ cycles.

For example, $c(4, 2) = 11$ because (writing all our permutations in cycle notation) we have the permutations $\{(1)(234), (1)(243), (134)(2),(143)(2),(124)(3),(142)(3),(123)(4),(132)(4), (12)(34), (13)(24), (14)(23)\}$ .

Stirling Numbers of the Second Kind

The Stirling number of the second kind $S(n, k)$ is the number of partitions of an $n$ -element set into exactly $k$ non-empty subsets.

For example, $S(4, 2) = 7$ because we have the partitions $\{1 | 234, 2|134, 3|124, 4|123, 12|34, 13|24, 14|23\}$ .

Stirling numbers of the second kind satisfy the recursion $S(n + 1, k) = k S(n, k) + S(n, k - 1).$

(This can easily be shown by considering the cases that $n + 1$ is in a part of size $1$ or size larger than $1$ .) They can also be calculated using the formula $S(n,k) = \frac{1}{k!}\sum_{j=0}^{k}(-1)^j{k \choose j} (k-j)^n.$

The total number of partitions of an $n$ -element set is $B_n = \sum_{k = 1}^n S(n, k)$ and is called the $n$ th Bell number.

Page

Toolbox

Search

Stirling number

Stirling Numbers of the First Kind

Stirling Numbers of the Second Kind

See Also