A Chung–Feller theorem for lattice paths with respect to cyclically shifting boundaries

Irving and Rattan gave a formula for counting lattice paths dominated by a cyclically shifting piecewise linear boundary of varying slope. Their main result may be considered as a deep extension of well-known enumerative formulas concerning lattice paths from (0, 0) to (kn, n) lying under the line x=ky\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$x=ky$$\end{document} (e.g., the Dyck paths when k=1\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$k=1$$\end{document}). On the other hand, the classical Chung–Feller theorem tells us that the number of lattice paths from (0, 0) to (n, n) with exactly 2k steps above the line x=y\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$x=y$$\end{document} is independent of k and is therefore the Catalan number 1n+12nn\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\frac{1}{n+1}{2n\atopwithdelims ()n}$$\end{document}. In this paper, we study the number of lattice path boundary pairs (P,a)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$(P,\mathbf{a})$$\end{document} with k flaws, where P is a lattice path from (0, 0) to (n, m), a\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\mathbf{a}$$\end{document} is a weak m-part composition of n, and a flaw is a horizontal step of P above the boundary ∂a\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\partial \mathbf{a}$$\end{document}. We prove bijectively, for a given a\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\mathbf{a}$$\end{document}, that summing these numbers over all cyclic shifts of the boundary ∂a\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\partial \mathbf{a}$$\end{document} is equal to n+mm-1\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${n+m\atopwithdelims ()m-1}$$\end{document}. That is, we generalize the Irving–Rattan formula to a Chung–Feller-type theorem. We also give a refinement of this result by taking the number of double ascents of lattice paths into account.