Theorem: Let F(m,n) be the coefficient of x^m*y^n in the Maclaurin series of 1 ----------------- 1 - x - y + 2 x y F(m,n) satisfies the following pure recurrences 2 (1 + m) F(m, n) (-4 + n - 3 m) F(1 + m, n) ----------------- + -------------------------- + F(2 + m, n) = 0 2 + m 2 + m 2 (1 + n) F(m, n) (-4 + m - 3 n) F(m, 1 + n) ----------------- + -------------------------- + F(m, 2 + n) = 0 2 + n 2 + n Proof: We will only do the first recurrence Let M and N be the shift operators in the m and n directions, respectively (M f(m,n):=f(m+1,n), Nf(m,n):=f(m,n+1) ) We have to prove that F(m,n) is annihilated by the operator, let's call it Q\ := 2 (1 + m) (-4 + n - 3 m) M 2 --------- + ---------------- + M 2 + m 2 + m or equivalenty 2 2 2 + 2 m - 4 M + M n - 3 m M + 2 M + m M We know, by the obvious algebra, that F(m,n) is annihilated by M N - N - M + 2 The sequence of successive commutators is [(M - 1) M (M N - N - M + 2)] As you can see, the last entry, (M - 1) M (M N - N - M + 2), is a multiple of , M N - N - M + 2 The proof follows by backwards induction, after checking the boundary condit\ ions QED . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------\ ---- The whole thing took , 0.908, seconds of CPU time