Exponential generating function 2026-10-07
An exponential generating function encodes a sequence using the displayed factorial denominators. It is especially useful for counting labelled combinatorial structures: taking an unordered set of structures with positive size corresponds to exponentiating their exponential generating function. The rooted-tree generating function illustrates this through .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 9 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The function is strictly increasing on and strictly decreasing on . Hence for each there is a unique with .
Apply the subcritical component estimates to . For a specified vertex, the exact tree-component expectation in the Erdős-Rényi model gives the limiting probability that it lies in a tree component of order :For each fixed , the probability of a non-tree graph component of that size is : a spanning tree and one extra edge are necessary. Moreover the Galton-Watson process exploration estimate from the preceding proof bounds the probability of order greater than by , uniformly in , where . First let for fixed , then let . No probability mass escapes to large components or non-tree components, so . Multiplying by and using its defining identity givesEquivalently, the rooted-tree generating function selects the smaller solution of . The choice of that branch is essential; the larger solution is not the value of this convergent series.