Analysis of Bidirectional Ballot Sequences and Random Walks Ending in their Maximum

Abstract

Consider non-negative lattice paths ending at their maximum height, which will be called admissible paths. We show that the probability for a lattice path to be admissible is related to the Chebyshev polynomials of the first or second kind, depending on whether the lattice path is defined with a reflective barrier or not. Parameters like the number of admissible paths with given length or the expected height are analyzed asymptotically. Additionally, we use a bijection between admissible random walks and special binary sequences to prove a recent conjecture by Zhao on ballot sequences.