This paper considers the enumeration of trees avoiding a contiguous pattern. We provide an algorithm for computing the generating function that counts n-leaf binary trees avoiding a given binary tree pattern t. Equipped with this counting mechanism, we study the analogue of Wilf equivalence in which two tree patterns are equivalent if the respective n-leaf trees that avoid them are equinumerous. We investigate the equivalence classes combinatorially. Toward establishing bijective proofs of tree pattern equivalence, we develop a general method of restructuring trees that conjecturally succeeds to produce an explicit bijection for each pair of equivalent tree patterns.
In this paper, the problem of pattern avoidance in generalized non-crossing trees is studied. The generating functions for generalized non-crossing trees avoiding patterns of length one and two are obtained. Lagrange inversion formula is used to obtain the explicit formulas for some special cases. Bijection is also established between generalized non-crossing trees with special pattern avoidance and the little Schröder paths.
This paper considers the enumeration of ternary trees (i.e. rooted ordered trees in which each vertex has 0 or 3 children) avoiding a contiguous ternary tree pattern. We begin by finding recurrence relations for several simple tree patterns; then, for more complex trees, we compute generating functions by extending a known algorithm for pattern-avoiding binary trees. Next, we present an alternate one-dimensional notation for trees which we use to find bijections that explain why certain pairs of tree patterns yield the same avoidance generating function. Finally, we compare our bijections to k…
In this paper we consider the enumeration of binary trees avoiding non-contiguous binary tree patterns. We begin by computing closed formulas for the number of trees avoiding a single binary tree pattern with 4 or fewer leaves and compare these results to analogous work for contiguous tree patterns. Next, we give an explicit generating function that counts binary trees avoiding a single non-contiguous tree pattern according to number of leaves. In addition, we enumerate binary trees that simultaneously avoid more than one tree pattern. Finally, we explore connections between pattern-avoiding t…
We extend earlier work of the same author to enumerate alternating permutations avoiding the permutation pattern 2143. We use a generating tree approach to construct a recursive bijection between the set A_{2n}(2143) of alternating permutations of length 2n avoiding 2143 and standard Young tableaux of shape (n, n, n) and between the set A_{2n + 1}(2143) of alternating permutations of length 2n + 1 avoiding 2143 and shifted standard Young tableaux of shape (n + 2, n + 1, n). We also give a number of conjectures and open questions on pattern avoidance in alternating permutations and generalizati…
We discuss a new notion of pattern avoidance motivated by the operad theory: pattern avoidance in planar labelled trees. It is a generalisation of various types of consecutive pattern avoidance studied before: consecutive patterns in words, permutations, coloured permutations etc. The notion of Wilf equivalence for patterns in permutations admits a straightforward generalisation for (sets of) tree patterns; we describe classes for trees with small numbers of leaves, and give several bijections between trees avoiding pattern sets from the same class. We also explain a few general results for tr…
A syntax tree is a planar rooted tree where internal nodes are labeled on a graded set of generators. There is a natural notion of occurrence of contiguous pattern in such trees. We describe a way, given a set of generators $\mathfrak{G}$ and a set of patterns $\mathcal{P}$, to enumerate the trees constructed on $\mathfrak{G}$ and avoiding $\mathcal{P}$. The method is built around inclusion-exclusion formulas forming a system of equations on formal power series of trees, and composition operations of trees. This does not require particular conditions on the set of patterns to avoid. We connect…
In 1976, Dekking showed that there exists an infinite binary word that contains neither squares yy with y >= 4 nor cubes xxx. We show that `cube' can be replaced by any fractional power > 5/2. We also consider the analogous problem where `4' is replaced by any integer. This results in an interesting and subtle hierarchy.
The complement $\overline{x}$ of a binary word $x$ is obtained by changing each $0$ in $x$ to $1$ and vice versa. We study infinite binary words $\bf w$ that avoid sufficiently large complementary factors; that is, if $x$ is a factor of $\bf w$ then $\overline{x}$ is not a factor of $\bf w$. In particular, we classify such words according to their critical exponents.
In this paper, we view parking functions viewed as labeled Dyck paths in order to study a notion of pattern avoidance first introduced by Remmel and Qiu. In particular we enumerate the parking functions avoiding any set of two or more patterns of length 3, and we obtain a number of well-known combinatorial sequences as a result. Along the way, we find bijections between specific sets of pattern-avoiding parking functions and a number of combinatorial objects such as partitions of polygons and trees with certain restrictions.
We begin a systematic study of the relations between subword complexity of infinite words and their power avoidance. Among other things, we show that -- the Thue-Morse word has the minimum possible subword complexity over all overlap-free binary words and all $(\frac 73)$-power-free binary words, but not over all $(\frac 73)^+$-power-free binary words; -- the twisted Thue-Morse word has the maximum possible subword complexity over all overlap-free binary words, but no word has the maximum subword complexity over all $(\frac 73)$-power-free binary words; -- if some word attains the minimum poss…
We consider avoiding mesosomes -- that is, words of the form $xx'$ with $x'$ a conjugate of $x$ that is different from $x$ -- over a binary alphabet. We give a structure theorem for mesosome-avoiding words, count how many there are, characterize all the infinite mesosome-avoiding words, and determine the minimal forbidden words.
In this short note, we first present a simple bijection between binary trees and colored ternary trees and then derive a new identity related to generalized Catalan numbers.
We start by considering binary words containing the minimum possible numbers of squares and antisquares (where an antisquare is a word of the form $x \overline{x}$), and we completely classify which possibilities can occur. We consider avoiding $x p(x)$, where $p$ is any permutation of the underlying alphabet, and $x t(x)$, where $t$ is any transformation of the underlying alphabet. Finally, we prove the existence of an infinite binary word simultaneously avoiding all occurrences of $x h(x)$ for every nonerasing morphism $h$ and all sufficiently large words $x$.
Let $Ω_n$ be the family of binary trees on $n$ vertices obtained by identifying the root of an rgood binary tree with a vertex of maximum eccentricity of a binary caterpillar. In the paper titled "On different middle parts of a tree (The electronic journal of combinatorics, 25 (2018), no. 3, paper 3.17, 32 pp)", Smith et al. conjectured that among all binary trees on $n$ vertices the pairwise distance between any two of center, centroid and subtree core is maximized by some member of the family $Ω_n$. We first obtain the rooted binary tree which minimizes the number of root containing subtrees…
Babson and Steingr\'ımsson introduced generalized permutation patterns that allow the requirement that two adjacent letters in a pattern must be adjacent in the permutation. We consider n-permutations that avoid the generalized pattern 1-32 and whose k rightmost letters form an increasing subword. The number of such permutations is a linear combination of Bell numbers. We find a bijection between these permutations and all partitions of an $(n-1)$-element set with one subset marked that satisfy certain additional conditions. Also we find the e.g.f. for the number of permutations that avoid a g…
In this paper, we present a new method for determining the optimal pebbling number of a complete binary tree. This method reveals a curious connection between the optimal pebbling numbers of complete binary trees and the Conolly-Fox sequence, a type of meta-Fibonacci sequence.
We introduce a monoid structure on a certain set of labelled binary trees, by a process similar to the construction of the plactic monoid. This leads to a new interpretation of the algebra of planar binary trees of Loday-Ronco.
Hex-trees are identified as a particular instance of weighted unary-binary trees. The Horton-Strahler numbers of these objects are revisited, and, thanks to a substitution that is not immediately intuitive, explicit results are possible. They are augmented by asymptotic evaluations as well. Furthermore, marked ordered trees (in bijection to skew Dyck paths) are investigated, followed 3-Motzkin paths and multi-edge trees. The underlying theme is sequence A002212 in the Encyclopedia of integer sequences.
We show that the set of balanced binary trees is closed by interval in the Tamari lattice. We establish that the intervals [T, T'] where T and T' are balanced binary trees are isomorphic as posets to a hypercube. We introduce synchronous grammars that allow to generate tree-like structures and obtain fixed-point functional equations to enumerate these. We also introduce imbalance tree patterns and show that they can be used to describe some sets of balanced binary trees that play a particular role in the Tamari lattice. Finally, we investigate other families of binary trees that are also close…
We develop combinatorial methods for computing the rotation distance between binary trees, i.e., equivalently, the flip distance between triangulations of a polygon. As an application, we prove that, for each n, there exist size n trees at distance 2n - O(sqrt(n)).
The theme of this article is the algebraic combinatorics of leaf-labeled rooted binary trees and forests of such trees. The structure of a Hopf operad is defined on the vector spaces spanned by forests of leaf-labeled, rooted, binary trees. An explicit formula for the coproduct and its dual product is given, using a poset on forests.
We show that the set of balanced binary trees is closed by interval in the Tamari lattice. We establish that the intervals [T0, T1] where T0 and T1 are balanced trees are isomorphic as posets to a hypercube. We introduce tree patterns and synchronous grammars to get a functional equation of the generating series enumerating balanced tree intervals.
Some posets of binary leaf-labeled trees are shown to be supersolvable lattices and explicit EL-labelings are given. Their characteristic polynomials are computed, recovering their known factorization in a different way.
We discover another one-parameter generalization of Postnikov's hook length formula for binary trees. The particularity of our formula is that the hook length $h_v$ appears as an exponent. As an application, we derive another simple hook length formula for binary trees when the underlying parameter takes the value 1/2.
In analogy to other concepts of a similar nature, we define the inducibility of a rooted binary tree. Given a fixed rooted binary tree $B$ with $k$ leaves, we let $γ(B,T)$ be the proportion of all subsets of $k$ leaves in $T$ that induce a tree isomorphic to $B$. The inducibility of $B$ is $\limsup_{|T| \to \infty} γ(B,T)$. We determine the inducibility in some special cases, show that every binary tree has positive inducibility and prove that caterpillars are the only binary trees with inducibility $1$. We also formulate some open problems and conjectures on the inducibility. Finally, we pres…
It is proved that the average number of segments on the right branch of a binary tree of size n tends to 3 as n tends to $\infty$. Also the fraction of trees with k segments on the right branch from all trees of size n tends to $\frac{k}{2^{k+1}}$ as n tends to $\infty$
A classical problem in phylogenetic tree analysis is to decide whether there is a phylogenetic tree $T$ that contains all information of a given collection $\cP$ of phylogenetic trees. If the answer is "yes" we say that $\cP$ is compatible and $T$ displays $\cP$. This decision problem is NP-complete even if all input trees are quartets, that is binary trees with exactly four leaves. In this paper, we prove a sufficient condition for a set of binary phylogenetic trees to be compatible. That result is used to give a short and self-contained proof of the known characterization of quartet sets of …
We take a global view at substitution invariant Sturmian sequences. We show that homogeneous substitution invariant Sturmian sequences $s_{α,α}$ can be indexed by two binary trees, associated directly to Johannes Kepler's tree of harmonic fractions from 1619. We obtain similar results for the inhomogeneous sequences $s_{α,1-α}$ and $s_{α,0}$.
We show that for every $k$, the probability that a randomly selected vertex of a random binary search tree on $n$ nodes is at distance $k-1$ from the closest leaf converges to a rational constant $c_k$ as $n$ goes to infinity.
An earlier characterization of topologically ordered (lexicographic) path-length sequences of binary trees is reformulated in terms of an integrality condition on a scaled Kraft sum of certain subsequences (full segments, or islands). The scaled Kraft sum is seen to count the set of ancestors at a certain level of a set of topologically consecutive leaves is a binary tree.
In this paper, we revisit the application of generating trees to the pattern avoidance problem for permutations. In particular, we study this problem for certain general sets of patterns and propose a new procedure leveraging the FinLabel algorithm and exploiting the subregularities in the associated generating trees. We consider some general kinds of generating trees for which the FinLabel algorithm fails to determine in a finite number of iterations the generating function that enumerates the underlying class of permutations. Our procedure provides a unified approach in these cases leading t…
We introduce a monoid structure on the set of binary search trees, by a process very similar to the construction of the plactic monoid, the Robinson-Schensted insertion being replaced by the binary search tree insertion. This leads to a new construction of the algebra of Planar Binary Trees of Loday-Ronco, defining it in the same way as Non-Commutative Symmetric Functions and Free Symmetric Functions. We briefly explain how the main known properties of the Loday-Ronco algebra can be described and proved with this combinatorial point of view, and then discuss it from a representation theoretica…
The existence of greatest lower bounds in the imbalance order of path-length sequences of binary trees is seen to be a consequence of a joint monotonicity property of the greater and lower expension operations. Path length sequences that are join-irreducible in the imbalance lattice are characterized.
We study the set of NBC sets (no broken circuit sets) of the Linial arrangement and deduce a constructive bijection to the set of local binary search trees. We then generalize this construction to two families of Linial type arrangements for which the bijections are with some $k$-ary labelled trees that we introduce for this purpose.
This note provide bijective proofs of two combinatorial identities involving generalized Catalan number $C_{m,5}(n)={m\over 5n+m}{5n+m\choose n}$ recently proposed by Sun.
Binary rooted trees, both in the ordered and in the un-ordered case, are well studied structures in the field of combinatorics. The aim of this work is to study particular patterns in these classes of trees. We consider completely unbalanced subtrees, where unbalancing is measured according to the so-called Colless's index. The size of the biggest unbalanced subtree becomes then a new parameter with respect to which we find several enumerations.
A reformulation of the path length of binary search trees is given in terms of permutations, allowing to extend the definition to the instance of words, where the letters are obtained by independent geometric random variables (with parameter q). In this way, expressions for expectation and variance are obtained which in the limit for $q\to1$ are the classical expressions.
One wishes to remove $k-1$ edges of a vertex-weighted tree $T$ such that the weights of the $k$ induced connected components are approximately the same. How well can one do it ? In this paper, we investigate such $k$-separator for {\em quasi-binary} trees. We show that, under certain conditions on the total weight of the tree, a particular $k$-separator can be constructed such that the smallest (respectively the largest) weighted component is lower (respectively upper) bounded. Examples showing optimality for the lower bound are also given.
The register function (or Horton-Strahler number) of a binary tree is a well-known combinatorial parameter. We study a reduction procedure for binary trees which offers a new interpretation for the register function as the maximal number of reductions that can be applied to a given tree. In particular, the precise asymptotic behavior of the number of certain substructures ("branches") that occur when reducing a tree repeatedly is determined. In the same manner we introduce a reduction for simple two-dimensional lattice paths from which a complexity measure similar to the register function can …
We look at a family of meta-Fibonacci sequences which arise in studying the number of leaves at the largest level in certain infinite sequences of binary trees, restricted compositions of an integer, and binary compact codes. For this family of meta-Fibonacci sequences and two families of related sequences we derive ordinary generating functions and recurrence relations. Included in these families of sequences are several well-known sequences in the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS).
Following Anders and Archer, we say that an unordered rooted labeled forest avoids the pattern $σ\in\mathcal{S}_k$ if in each tree, each sequence of labels along the shortest path from the root to a vertex does not contain a subsequence with the same relative order as $σ$. For each permutation $σ\in\mathcal{S}_{k-2}$, we construct a bijection between $n$-vertex forests avoiding $(σ)(k-1)k:=σ(1)\cdotsσ(k-2)(k-1)k$ and $n$-vertex forests avoiding $(σ)k(k-1):=σ(1)\cdotsσ(k-2)k(k-1)$, giving a common generalization of results of West on permutations and Anders--Archer on forests. We further define…
Fomin (1994) introduced a notion of duality between two graded graphs on the same set of vertices. He also introduced a generalization to dual graded graphs of the classical Robinson-Schensted-Knuth algorithm. We show how Fomin's approach applies to the binary search tree insertion algorithm also known as sylvester insertion, and to the hypoplactic insertion algorithm.
Simultaneous avoidance of length-4 patterns in ascent sequences
College of Mathematical Sciences & Institute of Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tianjin Normal University（天津师范大学数学科学学院与数学及交叉科学研究所）；Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Strathclyde（斯特拉斯克莱德大学数学与统计系）
The register function (or Horton-Strahler number) of a binary tree is a well-known combinatorial parameter. We study a reduction procedure for binary trees which offers a new interpretation for the register function as the maximal number of reductions that can be applied to a given tree. In particular, the precise asymptotic behavior of the number of certain substructures ("branches") that occur when reducing a tree repeatedly is determined. In the same manner we introduce a reduction for simple two-dimensional lattice paths from which a complexity measure similar to the register function can …
In this thesis, we consider the problem of characterizing and enumerating sets of polyominoes described in terms of some constraints, defined either by convexity or by pattern containment. We are interested in a well known subclass of convex polyominoes, the k-convex polyominoes for which the enumeration according to the semi-perimeter is known only for k=1,2. We obtain, from a recursive decomposition, the generating function of the class of k-convex parallelogram polyominoes, which turns out to be rational. Noting that this generating function can be expressed in terms of the Fibonacci polyno…
