Local time for lattice paths and the associated limit laws

Abstract: For generalized Dyck paths (i.e., directed lattice paths with any finite set of jumps), we analyse their local time at zero (i.e., the number of times the path is touching or crossing the abscissa). As we are in a discrete setting, the event we analyse here is '' invisible '' to the tools of Brownian motion theory. It is interesting that the key tool for analysing directed lattice paths, which is the kernel method, is not directly applicable here. Therefore, we introduce a variant of this kernel method to get the trivariate generating function (length, final altitude, local time): this leads to an expression involving symmetric and algebraic functions. We apply this analysis to different types of constrained lattice paths (meanders , excursions, bridges,. . .). Then, we illustrate this approach on 'basketball walks ' which are walks defined by the jumps --2, --1, 0, +1, +2. We use singularity analysis to prove that the limit laws for the local time are (depending on the drift and the type of walk) the geometric distribution, the negative binomial distribution, the Rayleigh distribution, or the half-normal distribution (a universal distribution up to now rarely encountered in analytic combinatorics).