I've run into the following identity and trying to prove it:
Let j∈N and f:N→R, then
\sum_{t=1}^j \sum_{r=1}^{t} (-1)^{r+t} \binom{j-1}{t-1} \binom{t-1}{r-1} f(r) = f(j)
I've so far tried to find some connection with the multinomial theorem, since the product of the two binomials in the expression is just multinomial \binom{j-1}{k1,k2,k3}. So perhaps something like (f(j)-1+1)^{j-1}, but it does not quite fit. I am missing something, any ideas how to proceed?
Edit: Further attempt, trying to collect "coefficients" of f(r) yields
\sum_{t=r}^j(-1)^{r+t}\binom{j-1}{t-1}\binom{t-1}{r-1} = \sum_{t=r}^j (-1)^{r+t}\binom{j-1}{t-1}
It should be enough to show that this is 1 when j=r and 0 otherwise. First one is simple
\sum_{t=r}^r (-1)^{r+t}\binom{r-1}{t-1} = (-1)^{2r} \binom{r-1}{r-1} = 1 but how to show it is equal to 0 in other cases (j\neq r ) ...
Answer
We seek to verify that
\sum_{k=1}^n \sum_{q=1}^k (-1)^{k+q} {n-1\choose k-1} {k-1\choose q-1} f(q) = f(n).
Exchange sums to obtain
\sum_{q=1}^n \sum_{k=q}^n (-1)^{k+q} {n-1\choose k-1} {k-1\choose q-1} f(q) \\ = \sum_{q=1}^n f(q) \sum_{k=q}^n (-1)^{k+q} {n-1\choose k-1} {k-1\choose q-1}.
Now we get for the inner coefficient
{n-1\choose k-1} {k-1\choose q-1} = \frac{(n-1)!}{(n-k)! (q-1)! (k-q)!} = {n-1\choose q-1} {n-q\choose n-k}.
This yields for the sum
\sum_{q=1}^n f(q) {n-1\choose q-1} (-1)^q \sum_{k=q}^n {n-q\choose n-k} (-1)^k \\ = \sum_{q=1}^n f(q) {n-1\choose q-1} \sum_{k=0}^{n-q} {n-q\choose n-q-k} (-1)^k \\ = \sum_{q=1}^n f(q) {n-1\choose q-1} \sum_{k=0}^{n-q} {n-q\choose k} (-1)^k.
We get
\sum_{q=1}^n f(q) {n-1\choose q-1} [[n-q = 0]] = f(n) {n-1\choose n-1} = f(n).
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