Spatial combinatorics

We define and study a spatial (infinite-dimensional) counterpart of Stirling numbers. In classical combinatorics, the Pochhammer symbol (m)n can be extended from a natural number m ∈ N to the falling factorials (z)n = z(z−1) · · · (z−n+1) of an argument z from F = R or C, and Stirling numbers of the first and second kinds are the coefficients of the expansions of (z)n through z k, k ≤ n and vice versa. When taking into account spatial positions of elements in a locally compact Polish space X, we replace N by the space of configurations—discrete Radon measures γ = ∑ i δxi on X, where δxi is the Dirac measure with mass at xi. The spatial falling factorials (γ)n := ∑ i1 ∑ i2 6=i1 · · · ∑ in 6=i1,...,in 6=in−1 δ(xi1 ,xi2 ,...,xin ) can be naturally extended to mappings M (1)(X) 3 ω 7→ (ω)n ∈ M (n)(X), where M (n)(X) denotes the space of F-valued, symmetric (for n ≥ 2) Radon measures on Xn. There is a natural duality between M (n)(X) and the space CF (X) of F-valued, symmetric continuous functions on Xn with compact support. The Stirling operators of the first and second kind, s(n, k) and S(n, k), are linear operators, acting between spaces CF (X) and CF (X) such that their dual operators, acting from M (k)(X) into M (n)(X), satisfy (ω)n = ∑n k=1 s(n, k) ∗ω⊗k and ω⊗n = ∑n k=1 S(n, k) (ω)k, respectively. In the case where X has only a single point, the Stirling operators can be identified with Stirling numbers. We derive combinatorial properties of the Stirling operators, present their connections with a generalization of the Poisson point process and with the Wick ordering under the canonical commutation relations.