Simplify $\sum \limits_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}}$ Can this sum be simplified: $\sum \limits_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}}$
Or at least is there a simple fairly tight upperbound?
EDIT
So I think this sum is more easily bounded than I previously thought:
Clearly, $$\sum_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}} \cdot \leq 2^{\sqrt{n}} \sum_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} = 2^{n+\sqrt{n}} .$$
Also, along the same lines as Shai Covo's answer, $\sum \limits_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}} \geq \binom{n}{n/2} 2^{\sqrt{n/2}}$. The central binomial coefficient: $\binom{n}{n/2}$ is at least $\frac{2^n}{\sqrt{2n}}$, hence $$\sum_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}} \geq 2^{\sqrt{n/2}} \cdot \frac{2^n}{\sqrt{2n}} = \frac{2^{n + \sqrt{n/2}}}{2n}$$
So $\sum \limits_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} 2^{\sqrt{k}}$ is $O(2^{n + \sqrt{n}})$ and $\Omega(\frac{2^{n+\sqrt{n/2}}}{n})$
What about expressions of the form:
$\sum \limits_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} a^{\sqrt{k}} b^{\sqrt{n-k}}$?
 A: I will only give some simple and useful estimate (confirmed by numerical results, based on some mathematical idea). It is essentially a lower bound, but can probably be easily modified to be an upper bound. Moreover, it might give you further ideas.
Denote your expression by $\varphi_n$, and consider a random variable $X$ with binomial$(n,1/2)$ distribution. Then
$$
{\rm E}\big[2^{\sqrt X } \big] = \sum\limits_{k = 0}^n {2^{\sqrt k } {n \choose k}\frac{1}{{2^n }}}  = \frac{1}{{2^n }}\varphi _n. 
$$
The left-hand side is actually the moment-generating function $M(t)$ of $\sqrt{X}$ at $t=\ln2$, but we will not use this fact.
I have plotted the function $2^{\sqrt{x}}$, $x > 0$, and it seems that this function is typically convex (it is not convex near $0$). So, heuristically, Jensen's inequality suggests the following result:
$$
{\rm E}\big[2^{\sqrt X } \big] > 2^{\sqrt {{\rm E}[X]} }, 
$$
for all sufficiently large $n$. (If $n$ is large, then $X$ typically takes values in a set on which $2^{\sqrt{x}}$ is convex.) Finally, ${\rm E}[X]=n/2$ leads to $2^{ - n} \varphi _n  > 2^{\sqrt {n/2} }$, that is
$$
\sum\limits_{k = 0}^n {{n \choose k} 2^{\sqrt k } }  > 2^{n + \sqrt {n/2} }, 
$$
for all sufficiently large $n$. Numerical results indicate that this inequality holds for all $n \geq 6$. Moreover, the results suggest that the (lower-)bound is quite tight (I checked for $n \leq 150$). So, a tight upper-bound is likely to be something not far from $2^{n + \sqrt {n/2}}$. 
EDIT: We can also employ the strong law of large numbers (SLLN) to show that $\varphi_n$ may be expected to behave something like $2^{n + \sqrt {n/2}}$ for large $n$. Indeed, writing $X$ as $Y_1 + \cdots + Y_n$, where $Y_i$ are i.i.d. rv's with ${\rm P}(Y_i = 0) = {\rm P}(Y_i = 1) = 1/2$, we have
$$
\varphi _n  = 2^n {\rm E}\bigg[2^{\sqrt n \sqrt {\frac{{Y_1  +  \cdots  + Y_n }}{n}} } \bigg].
$$
By SLLN, $\frac{{\sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n {Y_i } }}{n}$ converges to $1/2 \,(= {\rm E}[Y_1])$ almost surely, and the conclusion follows.
A: For the more general question at the end, let's first consider the weighted inner product and weighted norm on $\mathbb{R}^n$, which are defined by 
$$
\langle u,v\rangle  = \sum\limits_{i = 1}^n {c_i u_i v_i }, \;\; \|u\| = \sqrt {\langle u,u\rangle }  = \sqrt {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^n {c_i u_i^2 } },  
$$
where $c_1,\ldots,c_n$ are positive constants (called weights). By Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, $|\langle u,v\rangle | \le \|u\| \; \|v\|$. Hence, letting ${n \choose k}$ play the role of weights (and using the symmetry of binomial coefficients), we have
$$
\sum\limits_{k = 0}^n {{n \choose k}a^{\sqrt k } b^{\sqrt {n - k} } }  \le \sqrt {\sum\limits_{k = 0}^n {{n \choose k}(a^2 )^{\sqrt k } } } \sqrt {\sum\limits_{k = 0}^n {{n \choose k}(b^2 )^{\sqrt k } } } .
$$
So, if we assume that $a,b \geq 1$, the problem essentially reduces to the original one (as far as an upper-bound is concerned). In particular, when $a=b$, we get
$$
\sum\limits_{k = 0}^n {{n \choose k} a^{\sqrt k } a^{\sqrt {n - k} } }  \le \sum\limits_{k = 0}^n {{n \choose k} a^{2\sqrt k } }.
$$
A: The mass in the sum is approximately proportional to a (shifted) Gaussian centered at $k = n/2 + C\sqrt{n}$ and with standard deviation $A \sqrt{n}$ for explicitly calculable constants $C$ and $A$.  This implies asymptotics of the form $(M + o(1))2^{n + \sqrt{n/2}}$ where $M$ is another computable constant. 
The same is true for the $a,b$ version of the problem.
[edit: my calculations give $M = 2^{(\ln 2)/8} = 1.0618966...$.
[edit-2: similar calculations give $M=(a/b)^{\ln (a/b)}/8$ and asymptotics $(M+o(1))2^n (ab)^\sqrt{n/2}$ for the $a,b$ sum.]  
