Parking functions and Łukasiewicz paths

Abstract: We present a bijection between two well-known objects in the ubiquitous Catalan family: non-decreasing parking functions and {\L}ukasiewicz paths. This bijection maps the maximal displacement of a parking function to the height of the corresponding {\L}ukasiewicz path, and the total displacement to the area of the path. We also study this bijection restricted to two specific families of parking-functions: unit-interval parking functions, and prime parking functions.