TITLE: Reducing the form of $2\sum\limits_{j=0}^{n-2}\sum\limits_{k=1}^n {{k+j}\choose{k}}{{2n-j-k-1}\choose{n-k+1}}$.
QUESTION [8 upvotes]: I've been toying around with simplifying the expression $2\sum\limits_{j=0}^{n-2}\sum\limits_{k=1}^n {{k+j}\choose{k}}{{2n-j-k-1}\choose{n-k+1}}$ (for integer only $n$) for a while, as I was hoping it would have some sort of simpler closed form representation, and so I plugged it into Mathematica's FullSimplify function and got back the expression:  $$-\dfrac{2\pi  n \csc (2 \pi  n)}{\Gamma (n-1) \Gamma (-2 n) \Gamma (n+3)}$$ Which can be rewritten as $$-\dfrac{4\pi  n^2 \csc (2 \pi  n)}{2n\Gamma (n-1) \Gamma (-2 n) \Gamma (n+3)}$$ and then simplified via the property that $\Gamma (x) \Gamma (-x) = -\dfrac{\pi \csc (\pi x)}{x}$, as $$-\dfrac{4\pi  n^2 \csc (2 \pi  n)}{2n\Gamma (n-1) \Gamma (-2 n) \Gamma (n+3)}$$ $$=-\dfrac{\pi \csc (\pi 2n)}{2n} \dfrac{4n^2}{\Gamma (n-1) \Gamma (-2 n) \Gamma (n+3)}$$ $$=\Gamma (2n) \Gamma (-2n) \dfrac{4n^2}{\Gamma (n-1) \Gamma (-2 n) \Gamma (n+3)}$$ $$= \dfrac{4n^2\Gamma (2n)}{\Gamma (n-1) \Gamma (n+3)}$$ and as $n$ is strictly an integer, the expression can be rewritten as $$\dfrac{4n^2(2n-1)!}{(n-2)!(n+2)!}$$ $$= \dfrac{2n(2n)!}{(n-2)!(n+2)!}$$ $$ = 2n {{2n}\choose{n-2}}$$ My problem here is that I have no idea how to get to that first step without the use of Mathematica. I wouldn't even know where to start with this thing if I didn't have the computer's help to break it down first for me. I would very much appreciate advice about how I could solve this by hand, or a hint about how to start reducing it from its double sum form,  if that's possible. I would also appreciate feedback about the correctness of my simplification. Thank you in advance.

REPLY [3 votes]: Alternate solution.
As before we start trying to evaluate
$$S(n) = 
\sum_{q=0}^{n-2} 
\sum_{k=1}^n {k+q\choose k} {2n-q-k-1\choose n-k+1}$$
which we re-write as
$$-\sum_{q=0}^{n-2} {2n-q-1\choose n+1}
-\sum_{q=0}^{n-2} {n+1+q\choose n+1}
+ \sum_{q=0}^{n-2} 
\sum_{k=0}^{n+1} {k+q\choose k} {2n-q-k-1\choose n-k+1}.$$
Call these pieces up to sign from left to right $S_1, S_2$ and $S_3.$
The two pieces in front  cancel the quantities introduced by extending
$k$ to include the values zero and $n+1.$
Evaluation of $S_1.$
Introduce
$${2n-q-1\choose n+1} = {2n-q-1\choose n-q-2} =
\frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{2n-q-1}}{z^{n-q-1}} \; dz.$$
This vanishes when $q\gt n-2$ so  we may extend the sum to infinity to
get
$$\frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{2n-1}}{z^{n-1}} 
\sum_{q\ge 0} \frac{z^q}{(1+z)^q}\; dz
\\ = \frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{2n-1}}{z^{n-1}} 
\frac{1}{1-z/(1+z)}
\; dz
\\ = \frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{2n}}{z^{n-1}} 
\; dz
\\ = {2n\choose n-2}.$$
Evaluation of $S_2.$
Introduce
$${n+1+q\choose n+1} = 
\frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{n+1+q}}{z^{n+2}} \; dz.$$
This yields for the sum
$$\frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{n+1}}{z^{n+2}}
\sum_{q=0}^{n-2} (1+z)^q 
\; dz
\\ = \frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{n+1}}{z^{n+2}}
\frac{(1+z)^{n-1}-1}{1+z-1} \; dz
\\ = \frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{n+1}}{z^{n+3}}
((1+z)^{n-1}-1) \; dz
\\ = {2n\choose n+2}.$$
A more efficient evaluation is to notice that when we re-index
$q$ as $n-2-q$ in $S_2$ we obtain
$$\sum_{q=0}^{n-2} {n+1+n-2-q\choose n+1}
= \sum_{q=0}^{n-2} {2n-q-1\choose n+1}$$
which is $S_1.$
Evaluation of $S_3.$
Introduce
$${2n-q-k-1\choose n-k+1} = 
\frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{2n-q-k-1}}{z^{n-k+2}} \; dz.$$
This effectively controls  the range so we can let  $k$ go to infinity
to get
$$\frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{2n-1}}{z^{n+2}} 
\sum_{q=0}^{n-2} \sum_{k\ge 0} {k+q\choose q} \frac{z^k}{(1+z)^{q+k}}
\; dz
\\ = \frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{2n-1}}{z^{n+2}} 
\sum_{q=0}^{n-2} \frac{1}{(1+z)^q} \frac{1}{(1-z/(1+z))^{q+1}} \; dz
\\ = \frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{2n}}{z^{n+2}} 
\sum_{q=0}^{n-2} \frac{1}{(1+z)^{q+1}} \frac{1}{(1-z/(1+z))^{q+1}} 
\; dz
\\ = \frac{1}{2\pi i}
\int_{|z|=\epsilon} \frac{(1+z)^{2n}}{z^{n+2}} 
\times (n-1) \times \; dz
\\ = (n-1) \times {2n\choose n+1}.$$
Finally collecting the three contributions we obtain
$$(n-1) \times {2n\choose n+1}
- 2{2n\choose n+2}
= (n+2) {2n\choose n+2}
- 2{2n\choose n+2}
\\ = n\times {2n\choose n+2}.$$