Helmke et al. have recently given a formula for the number of reachable pairs of matrices over a finite field. We give a new and elementary proof of the same formula by solving the equivalent problem of determining the number of so called zero kernel pairs over a finite field. We show that the problem is equivalent to certain other enumeration problems and outline a connection with some recent results of Guo and Yang on the natural density of rectangular unimodular matrices over $\Fq[x]$. We also propose a new conjecture on the density of unimodular matrix polynomials.
We prove that the generating function for the number of flattened permutations having a given number of occurrences of the pattern 13-2 is rational, by using the recurrence relations and the kernel method.
Given sets X and Y of positive integers and a permutation sigma = sigma_1, sigma_2, ..., sigma_n in S_n, an X,Y-descent of sigma is a descent pair sigma_i > sigma_{i+1} whose "top" sigma_i is in X and whose "bottom" sigma_{i+1} is in Y. We give two formulas for the number P_{n,s}^{X,Y} of sigma in S_n with s X,Y-descents. P_{n,s}^{X,Y} is also shown to be a hit number of a certain Ferrers board. This work generalizes results of Kitaev and Remmel on counting descent pairs whose top (or bottom) is equal to 0 mod k.
Graphs embedded into surfaces have many important applications, in particular, in combinatorics, geometry, and physics. For example, ribbon graphs and their counting is of great interest in string theory and quantum field theory (QFT). Recently, Koch, Ramgoolam, and Wen [Nuclear Phys.\,B {\bf 870} (2013), 530--581] gave a refined formula for counting ribbon graphs and discussed its applications to several physics problems. An important factor in this formula is the number of surface-kernel epimorphisms from a co-compact Fuchsian group to a cyclic group. The aim of this paper is to give an expl…
For a fixed positive integer n, let S_n denote the symmetric group of n! permutations on n symbols, and let maj(sigma) denote the major index of a permutation sigma. For positive integers k<m not greater than n and non-negative integers i and j, we give enumerative formulas for the cardinality of the set of permutations sigma in S_n with maj(sigma) congruent to i mod k and maj(sigma^(-1)) congruent to j mod m. When m divides n-1 and k divides n, we show that for all i,j, this cardinality equals (n!)/(km).
We count a large class of lattice paths by using factorizations of free monoids. Besides the classical lattice paths counting problems related to Catalan numbers, we give a new approach to the problem of counting walks on the slit plane (walks avoid a half line) that was first solved by Bousquet-Mélou and Schaeffer. We also solve a problem about walks in the half plane avoiding a half line by subsequently applying the factorizations of two different Gessel pairs, giving a generalization of a result of Bousquet-Mélou.
In this note, we investigate the detailed relationship between the orbifold partition counting and the (l-quotient, l-core) pair counting. We show that the orbifold partition counting is exactly the same as the (l-quotient, l-core) pair counting.
A tanglegram is a pair of binary trees with the same set of leaves. Unlabeled tanglegrams were counted recently by Billey, Konvalinka, and Matsen, who also proposed the problem of counting several variations of unlabeled tanglegrams (unordered and unrooted tanglegrams). We use the theory of combinatorial species to solve these problems.
We define new statistics, (c, d)-descents, on the colored permutation groups Z_r \wr S_n and compute the distribution of these statistics on the elements in these groups. We use some combinatorial approaches, recurrences, and generating functions manipulations to obtain our results.
The simple connected graphs may be classified by their cycle composition (number and lengths of cycles). This work derives the counting series of the simple connected graphs that have cycles of unrestricted number and length, but no overlapping cycles. Cycle pairs of these graphs of interest must not have common nodes or edges. The recipe of counting these graphs is based on the counting series of the associated planted graphs, multisets of planted graphs, a recursive synthesis of enriched trees, and a generalized Otter's formula that maps the underlying rooted block graphs to the underlying b…
A partial Butson matrix is a matrix $H\in M_{M\times N}(\mathbb Z_q)$ having its rows pairwise orthogonal, where $\mathbb Z_q\subset\mathbb C^\times$ is the group of $q$-th roots of unity. We investigate here the counting problem for these matrices in the "thin" regime, where $M=2,3,\ldots$ is small, and where $N\to\infty$ (subject to the condition $N\in p\mathbb N$ when $q=p^k>2$). The proofs are inspired from the de Launey-Levin and Richmond-Shallit counting results.
In this paper, we consider the number of occurrences of descents, ascents, 123-subwords, 321-subwords, peaks and valleys in flattened permutations, which were recently introduced by Callan in his study of finite set partitions. For descents and ascents, we make use of the kernel method and obtain an explicit formula (in terms of Eulerian polynomials) for the distribution on $\mathcal{S}_n$ in the flattened sense. For the other four patterns in question, we develop a unified approach to obtain explicit formulas for the comparable distributions. We find that the formulas so obtained for 123- and…
We study the concept of \emph{compactor}, which may be seen as a counting-analogue of kernelization in counting parameterized complexity. For a function $F:Σ^*\to \Bbb{N}$ and a parameterization $κ: Σ^*\to \Bbb{N}$, a compactor $({\sf P},{\sf M})$ consists of a polynomial-time computable function ${\sf P}$, called \emph{condenser}, and a computable function ${\sf M}$, called \emph{extractor}, such that $F={\sf M}\circ {\sf P}$, and the condensing ${\sf P}(x)$ of $x$ has length at most $s(κ(x))$, for any input $x\in Σ^*.$ If $s$ is a polynomial function, then the compactor is said to be of poly…
Spanning trees are a representative example of linear matroid bases that are efficiently countable. Perfect matchings of Pfaffian bipartite graphs are a countable example of common bases of two matrices. Generalizing these two examples, Webb (2004) introduced the notion of Pfaffian pairs as a pair of matrices for which counting of their common bases is tractable via the Cauchy-Binet formula. This paper studies counting on linear matroid problems extending Webb's work. We first introduce "Pfaffian parities" as an extension of Pfaffian pairs to the linear matroid parity problem, which is a commo…
A family of subsets of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ is called {\it intersecting} if any two of its sets intersect. A classical result in extremal combinatorics due to Erdős, Ko, and Rado determines the maximum size of an intersecting family of $k$-subsets of $\{1,\ldots, n\}$. In this paper we study the following problem: how many intersecting families of $k$-subsets of $\{1,\ldots, n\}$ are there? Improving a result of Balogh, Das, Delcourt, Liu, and Sharifzadeh, we determine this quantity asymptotically for $n\ge 2k+2+2\sqrt{k\log k}$ and $k\to \infty$. Moreover, under the same assumptions we also deter…
The pair correlation is a localized statistic for sequences in the unit interval. Pseudo-random behavior with respect to this statistic is called Poissonian behavior. The metric theory of pair correlations of sequences of the form $(a_n α)_{n \geq 1}$ has been pioneered by Rudnick, Sarnak and Zaharescu. Here $α$ is a real parameter, and $(a_n)_{n \geq 1}$ is an integer sequence, often of arithmetic origin. Recently, a general framework was developed which gives criteria for Poissonian pair correlation of such sequences for almost every real number $α$, in terms of the additive energy of the in…
Let $ζ$ be a fixed nonzero element in a finite field $\mathbb F_q$ with $q$ elements. In this article, we count the number of pairs $(A,B)$ of $n\times n$ matrices over $\mathbb F_q$ satisfying $AB=ζBA$ by giving a generating function. This generalizes a generating function of Feit and Fine that counts pairs of commuting matrices. Our result can be also viewed as the point count of the variety of modules over the quantum plane $xy=ζyx$, whose geometry was described by Chen and Lu.
Given as input two $n$-element sets $\mathcal A,\mathcal B\subseteq\{0,1\}^d$ with $d=c\log n\leq(\log n)^2/(\log\log n)^4$ and a target $t\in \{0,1,\ldots,d\}$, we show how to count the number of pairs $(x,y)\in \mathcal A\times \mathcal B$ with integer inner product $\langle x,y \rangle=t$ deterministically, in $n^2/2^{Ω\bigl(\!\sqrt{\log n\log \log n/(c\log^2 c)}\bigr)}$ time. This demonstrates that one can solve this problem in deterministic subquadratic time almost up to $\log^2 n$ dimensions, nearly matching the dimension bound of a subquadratic randomized detection algorithm of Alman an…
In modeling DNA chains, the number of alternations between Adenine-Thymine (AT) and Guanine-Cytosine (GC) base pairs can be considered as a measure of the heterogeneity of the chain, which in turn could affect its dynamics. A probability distribution function of the number of these alternations is derived for circular or periodic DNA. Since there are several symmetries to account for in the periodic chain, necklace counting methods are used. In particular, Polya's Enumeration Theorem is extended for the case of a group action that preserves partitioned necklaces. This, along with the treatment…
We study the problem of counting all cycles or self-avoiding walks (SAWs) on triangulated planar graphs. We present a subexponential $2^{O(\sqrt{n})}$ time algorithm for this counting problem. Among the technical ingredients used in this algorithm are the planar separator theorem and a delicate analysis using pairs of Motzkin paths and Motzkin numbers. We can then adapt this algorithm to uniformly sample SAWs, in subexponential time. Our work is motivated by the problem of gerrymandered districting maps.
In a convex n-gon, let d[1] > d[2] > ... denote the set of all distances between pairs of vertices, and let m[i] be the number of pairs of vertices at distance d[i] from one another. Erdos, Lovasz, and Vesztergombi conjectured that m[1] + ... + m[k] <= k*n. Using a new computational approach, we prove their conjecture when k <= 4 and n is large; we also make some progress for arbitrary k by proving that m[1] + ... + m[k] <= (2k-1)n. Our main approach revolves around a few known facts about distances, together with a computer program that searches all distance configurations of two disjoint con…
We count the number of compatible pairs of indexing systems for the cyclic group $C_{p^n}$. Building on work of Balchin--Barnes--Roitzheim, we show that this sequence of natural numbers is another family of Fuss--Catalan numbers. We count this two different ways: showing how the conditions of compatibility give natural recursive formulas for the number of admissible sets and using an enumeration of ways to extend indexing systems by conceptually simpler pieces.
