A refined enumeration of $p$-ary labeled trees

Abstract

Let $\mathcal{T}^{(p)}_n$ be the set of $p$-ary labeled trees on $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$. A maximal decreasing subtree of an $p$-ary labeled tree is defined by the maximal $p$-ary subtree from the root with all edges being decreasing. In this paper, we study a new refinement $\mathcal{T}^{(p)}_{n,k}$ of $\mathcal{T}^{(p)}_n$, which is the set of $p$-ary labeled trees whose maximal decreasing subtree has $k$ vertices.