We introduce a notion of {\em cyclic Schur-positivity} for sets of permutations, which naturally extends the classical notion of Schur-positivity, and it involves the existence of a bijection from permutations to standard Young tableaux that preserves the cyclic descent set. Cyclic Schur-positive sets of permutations are always Schur-positive, but the converse does not hold, as exemplified by inverse descent classes, Knuth classes and conjugacy classes.
In this paper we show that certain classes of permutations invariant under either horizontal or vertical rotation are cyclic Schur-positive. The proof unveils a new equidistribution phenomenon of descent sets on permutations, provides affirmative solutions to conjectures from [9] and [2], and yields new examples of Schur-positive sets.
Characterizing sets of permutations whose associated quasisymmetric function is symmetric and Schur-positive is a long-standing problem in algebraic combinatorics. In this paper we present a general method to construct Schur-positive sets and multisets, based on geometric grid classes and the product operation. Our approach produces many new instances of Schur-positive sets, and provides a broad framework that explains the existence of known such sets that until now were sporadic cases.
A new descent set statistic on involutions, defined geometrically via their interpretation as matchings, is introduced in this paper, and shown to be equi-distributed with the standard one. This concept is then applied to construct explicit cyclic descent extensions on involutions, standard Young tableaux and Motzkin paths. Schur-positivity of the associated quasisymmetric functions follows.
The block number of a permutation is the maximal number of components in its expression as a direct sum. We show that, for $321$-avoiding permutations, the set of left-to-right maxima has the same distribution when the block number is assumed to be $k$ as when the last descent of the inverse is assumed to be at position $n - k$. This result is analogous to the Foata-Schützenberger equi-distribution theorem, and implies that the quasi-symmetric generating function of descent set over $321$-avoiding permutations with a prescribed number of blocks is Schur-positive.
A finite group $G$ is called a Schur group, if any Schur ring over $G$ is the transitivity module of a permutation group on the set $G$ containing the regular subgroup of all right translations. It was proved by R. Pöschel (1974) that given a prime $p\ge 5$ a $p$-group is Schur if and only if it is cyclic. We prove that a cyclic group of order $n$ is a Schur group if and only if $n$ belongs to one of the following five (partially overlapped) families of integers: $p^k$, $pq^k$, $2pq^k$, $pqr$, $2pqr$ where $p,q,r$ are distinct primes, and $k\ge 0$ is an integer.
Over the past years, major attention has been drawn to the question of identifying Schur-positive sets, i.e. sets of permutations whose associated quasisymmetric function is symmetric and can be written as a non-negative sum of Schur symmetric functions. The set of arc permutations, i.e. the set of permutations $π$ in $S_n$ such that for any $1\leq j \leq n$, $\{π(1),π(2),\dots,π(j)\}$ is an interval in $\mathbb{Z}_n$ is one of the most noticeable examples. This paper introduces a new type B extension of Schur-positivity to signed permutations based on Chow's quasisymmetric functions and gener…
The recently developed theory of Schur rings over a finite cyclic group is generalized to Schur rings over a ring R being a product of Galois rings of coprime characteristics. It is proved that if the characteristic of R is odd, then as in the cyclic group case any pure Schur ring over R is the tensor product of a pure cyclotomic ring and Schur rings of rank 2 over non-fields. Moreover, it is shown that in contrast to the cyclic group case there are non-pure Schur rings over R that are not generalized wreath products.
The problem of finding Schur-positive sets of permutations, originally posed by Gessel and Reutenauer, has seen some recent developments. Schur-positive sets of pattern-avoiding permutations have been found by Sagan et al and a general construction based on geometric operations on grid classes has been given by the authors. In this paper we prove that horizontal rotations of Schur-positive subsets of permutations are always Schur-positive. The proof applies a cyclic action on standard Young tableaux of certain skew shapes and a jeu-de-taquin type straightening algorithm. As a consequence of th…
Any Schur ring is uniquely determined by a partition of the elements of the group. In this paper we present a general technique for enumerating Schur rings over cyclic groups using traditional Schur rings. We also survey recent efforts to enumerate Schur rings over cyclic groups of specific orders.
We provide a cyclic permutation analogue of the Erd\H os-Szekeres theorem. In particular, we show that every cyclic permutation of length $(k-1)(\ell-1)+2$ has either an increasing cyclic sub-permutation of length $k+1$ or a decreasing cyclic sub-permutation of length $\ell+1$, and show that the result is tight. We also characterize all maximum-length cyclic permutations that do not have an increasing cyclic sub-permutation of length $k+1$ or a decreasing cyclic sub-permutation of length $\ell+1$.
We give an explicit combinatorial formula for the Schur expansion of Macdonald polynomials indexed by partitions with second part at most two. This gives a uniform formula for both hook and two column partitions. The proof comes as a corollary to the result that generalized dual equivalence classes of permutations are unions of standard dual equivalence classes of permutations for certain cases, establishing an earlier conjecture of the author.
In this paper, we focus on the enumeration of permutations by number of cyclic occurrence of peaks and valleys. We find several recurrence relations involving the number of permutations with a prescribed number of cyclic peaks, cyclic valleys, fixed points and cycles. Several associated permutation statistics and the corresponding generating functions are also studied. In particular, we establish a connection between cyclic valleys and Pell numbers as well as cyclic peaks and alternating runs.
We study the unique maximal decomposition of an arbitrary affine permutation into a product of cyclically decreasing elements, providing a new perspective on work of Thomas Lam. This decomposition is closely related to the affine code, which generalizes the $k$-bounded partition associated to Grassmannian elements. We also show that the affine code readily encodes a number of basic combinatorial properties of an affine permutation. As an application, we prove a new special case of the Littlewood-Richardson Rule for $k$-Schur functions, using the canonical decomposition to control for which per…
The paper concerns the automorphism groups of Cayley graphs over cyclic groups which have a rational spectrum (rational circulant graphs for short). With the aid of the techniques of Schur rings it is shown that the problem is equivalent to consider the automorphism groups of orthogonal group block structures of cyclic groups. Using this observation, the required groups are expressed in terms of generalized wreath products of symmetric groups.
We show a $n^2 \cdot 2^{n/2}$ upper bound on the number of $(132,213)$ avoiding cyclic permutations. This is the first nontrivial upper bound on the number of such permutations. We also construct an algorithm to determine whether a $(132,213)$ avoiding permutation is cyclic that references only the permutation's layer lengths.
A grid class consists of permutations whose pictorial depiction can be partitioned into increasing and decreasing parts as determined by a given matrix. In this paper, we introduce a method for enumerating cyclic permutations in vector grid classes by establishing a bijective relationship with certain necklaces. We use this method to complete the enumeration of cyclic permutations in the length 3 vector grid classes. In addition, we define an analog of Wilf-equivalence between these sets. We conclude by discussing cyclic permutations in alternating grid classes.
A number system coding for the permutations generated by cyclic shift is described. The system allows to find the rank of a permutation given how it has been generated, and to determine a permutation given its rank. It defines a code describing the symmetry properties of the set of permutations generated by cyclic shift. This code is conjectured to be a combinatorial Gray code listing the set of permutations: this corresponds to an Hamiltonian path of minimal weight in an appropriate regular digraph.
We establish conditions for a permutation group generated by a single permutation of a prime power order to be an automorphism group of a graph or an edge-colored graph. This corrects and generalizes the results of the two papers on cyclic permutation groups published in 1978 and 1981 by S. P. Mohanty, M. R. Sridharan, and S. K. Shukla.
The generalized wreath product of permutation groups is introduced. By means of it we study the schurity problem for S-rings over a cyclic group $G$ and the automorphism groups of them. Criteria for the schurity and non-schurity of the generalized wreath product of two such S-rings are obtained. As a byproduct of the developed theory we prove that $G$ is a Schur group whenever the total number $Ω(n)$ of prime factors of the integer $n=|G|$ is at most 3. Moreover, we describe the structure of a non-schurian S-ring over $G$ when $Ω(n)=4$. The latter result implies in particular that if $n=p^3q$ …
Generalizing a result in the theory of finite fields we prove that, apart from a couple of exceptions that can be classified, for any elements $a_1,...,a_m$ of the cyclic group of order $m$, there is a permutation $π$ such that $1a_{π(1)}+...+ma_{π(m)}=0$.
We show an instance of the cyclic sieving phenomenon on annular noncrossing permutations with given cycle types. We define annular $q$-Kreweras numbers, annular $q$-Narayana numbers, and annular $q$-Catalan number, all of which are polynomials in $q$. We then show that these polynomials exhibit the cyclic sieving phenomenon on annular noncrossing permutations. We also show that a sum of annular $q$-Kreweras numbers becomes an annular $q$-Narayana number and a sum of $q$-Narayana numbers becomes an annular $q$-Catalan number.
Let $k$ and $m$ be positive integers and $λ/μ$ a skew partition. We compute the principal specialization of the skew Schur polynomials $s_{λ/μ}(x_1, \ldots, x_{k})$ modulo $q^m-1$ under suitable conditions. We interpret the results thus obtained from the viewpoint of the cyclic sieving phenomenon on semistandard Young skew tableaux of shape $λ/μ$. As an application, we deal with evaluations of the principal specialization of the skew Schur polynomials at roots of unity.
We prove that the cyclic inequality $\sum\limits_{i=1}^{i=n}\left(\frac{x_i}{x_{i+1}}\right)^k\geq\sum\limits_{i=1}^{i=n}\frac{x_i}{x_{σ(i)}}$ holds for $k$ in a specific range dependant on the permutation $σ$. We also show that the same is not true for the Sahpiro-type generalizations.
We present a bijection between cyclic permutations of {1,2,...,n+1} and permutations of {1,2,...,n} that preserves the descent set of the first n entries and the set of weak excedances. This non-trivial bijection involves a Foata-like transformation on the cyclic notation of the permutation, followed by certain conjugations. We also give an alternate derivation of the consequent result about the equidistribution of descent sets using work of Gessel and Reutenauer. Finally, we prove a conjecture of the author in [SIAM J. Discrete Math. 23 (2009), 765-786] and a conjecture of Eriksen, Freij and …
Pattern avoidance for permutations has been extensively studied, and has been generalized to vincular patterns, where certain elements can be required to be adjacent. In addition, cyclic permutations, i.e., permutations written in a circle rather than a line, have been frequently studied, including in the context of pattern avoidance. We investigate vincular pattern avoidance on cyclic permutations. In particular, we enumerate many avoidance classes of sets of vincular patterns of length 3, including a complete enumeration for all single patterns of length 3. Further, several of the avoidance …
The study of pattern containment and avoidance for linear permutations is a well-established area of enumerative combinatorics. A cyclic permutation is the set of all rotations of a linear permutation. Callan initiated the study of permutation avoidance in cyclic permutations and characterized the avoidance classes for all single permutations of length 4. We continue this work. In particular, we establish a cyclic variant of the Erdos-Szekeres Theorem that any linear permutation of length mn+1 must contain either the increasing pattern of length m+1 or the decreasing pattern of length n+1. We …
This is my dissertation. Its research object is a symmetric group of permutations acting on a finite set. The density of permutations with a given cycle structure pattern is explored when the group order tends to infinity. New and sharper asymptotic formulas are obtained. The latter are applied in approximations of the cycle vector distribution of a random permutation. The saddle-point method, Lagrange-Bürmann inversion formula, Laplace transformations, and other techniques of complex analysis are applied.
Recently, Gross et al. posed the LLC conjecture for the locally log-concavity of the genus distribution of every graph, and provided an equivalent combinatorial version, the CLLC conjecture, on the log-concavity of the generating function counting cycles of some permutation compositions. In this paper, we confirm the CLLC conjecture for cyclic permutations, with the aid of Hultman numbers and by applying the Hermite--Biehler theorem on the generating function of Stirling numbers of the first kind. This leads to a further conjecture that every local genus polynomial is real-rooted.
We conjecture an evaluation of three-partition cyclic Hodge integrals in terms of loop Schur functions. Our formula implies the orbifold Gromov-Witten/Donaldson-Thomas correspondence for toric Calabi-Yau threefolds with transverse type A singularities. We prove the formula in the case where one of the partitions is empty, and thus establish the orbifold Gromov- Witten/Donaldson-Thomas correspondence for local toric surfaces with transverse type A singularities.
Using a result of Gessel and Reutenauer, we find a simple formula for the number of cyclic permutations with a given descent set, by expressing it in terms of ordinary descent numbers (i.e., those counting all permutations with a given descent set). We then use this formula to show that, for almost all sets $I \subseteq [n-1]$, the fraction of size-$n$ permutations with descent set $I$ which are $n$-cycles is asymptotically $1/n$. As a special case, we recover a result of Stanley for alternating cycles. We also use our formula to count the cycles that do not have two consecutive descents.
We show that Han's bijection when restricted to permutations can be carried out in terms of the cyclic major code and the cyclic inversion code. In other words, it maps a permutation $π$ with a cyclic major code $(s_1, s_2, ..., s_n)$ to a permutation $σ$ with a cyclic inversion code $(s_1,s_2, ..., s_n)$. We also show that the fixed points of Han's map can be characterized by the strong fixed points of Foata's second fundamental transformation. The notion of strong fixed points is related to partial Foata maps introduced by Björner and Wachs.
The (n,k)-arrangement graph A(n,k) is a graph with all the k-permutations of an n-element set as vertices where two k-permutations are adjacent if they agree in exactly k-1 positions. We introduce a cyclic decomposition for k-permutations and show that this gives rise to a very fine equitable partition of A(n,k). This equitable partition can be employed to compute the complete set of eigenvalues (of the adjacency matrix) of A(n,k). Consequently, we determine the eigenvalues of A(n,k) for small values of k. Finally, we show that any eigenvalue of the Johnson graph J(n,k) is an eigenvalue of A(n…
The famous Burnside-Schur theorem states that every primitive finite permutation group containing a regular cyclic subgroup is either 2-transitive or isomorphic to a subgroup of a 1-dimensional affine group of prime degree. It is known that this theorem can be expressed as a statement on Schur rings over a finite cyclic group. Generalizing the latters we introduce Schur rings over a finite commutative ring and prove an analog of this statement for them. Besides, the finite local commutative rings are characterized in the permutation group terms.
By considering type B analogs of permutations and tableaux, we extend abstract dual equivalence to type B in two directions. In one direction, we define involutions on signed permutations and shifted tableaux that give a weak dual equivalence, thereby giving another proof of the Schur positivity of Schur Q- and P-functions. In another direction, we define an abstract shifted dual equivalence parallel to dual equivalence and prove that it can be used to establish Schur P-positivity of a function expressed as a sum of shifted fundamental quasisymmetric functions.
In this paper we characterize permutation groups that are automorphism groups of coloured graphs and digraphs and are abelian as abstract groups. This is done in terms of basic permutation group properties. Using Schur's classical terminology, what we provide is characterizations of the classes of 2-closed and $2*$-closed abelian permutation groups. This is the first characterization concerning these classes since they were defined.
The $k$-Young lattice $Y^k$ is a partial order on partitions with no part larger than $k$. This weak subposet of the Young lattice originated from the study of the $k$-Schur functions(atoms) $s_λ^{(k)}$, symmetric functions that form a natural basis of the space spanned by homogeneous functions indexed by $k$-bounded partitions. The chains in the $k$-Young lattice are induced by a Pieri-type rule experimentally satisfied by the $k$-Schur functions. Here, using a natural bijection between $k$-bounded partitions and $k+1$-cores, we establish an algorithm for identifying chains in the $k$-Young l…
Consider a permutation p to be any finite list of distinct positive integers. A statistic is a function St whose domain is all permutations. Let S(p,q) be the set of shuffles of two disjoint permutations p and q. We say that St is shuffle compatible if the distribution of St over S(p,q) depends only on St(p), St(q), and the lengths of p and q. This notion is implicit in Stanley's work on P-partitions and was first explicitly studied by Gessel and Zhuang. One of the places where shuffles are useful is in describing the product in the algebra of quasisymmetric functions. Recently Adin, Gessel, R…
We investigate the combinatorics and geometry of permutation polytopes associated to cyclic permutation groups, i.e., the convex hulls of cyclic groups of permutation matrices. We give formulas for their dimension and vertex degree. In the situation that the generator of the group consists of at most two orbits, we can give a complete combinatorial description of the associated permutation polytope. In the case of three orbits the facet structure is already quite complex. For a large class of examples we show that there exist exponentially many facets.
A finite group $G$ is called a Schur group, if any Schur ring over $G$ is associated in a natural way with a subgroup of $Sym(G)$ that contains all right translations. Recently, the authors have completely identified the cyclic Schur groups. In this paper it is shown that any abelian Schur group belongs to one of several explicitly given families only. In particular, any non-cyclic abelian Schur group of odd order is isomorphic to $Z_3\times Z_{3^k}$ or $Z_3\times Z_3\times Z_p$ where $k\ge 1$ and $p$ is a prime. In addition, we prove that $Z_2\times Z_2\times Z_p$ is a Schur group for every p…
Shuffles are n-multipermutations with suit multiplicities given by a subset R of {1,..,n-1}. Their inverses are ordered partitions of {1,..,n} whose block sizes derive from R. These "R-permutations" depict the min length coset reps for the quotient of S_n by the parabolic subgroup W_J, with J the complement of R. We refer to those that blockwise avoid the pattern 312 as "312-avoiding R-permutations" and define the "parabolic R-Catalan number" to be the number of them. Let lambda be a partition of N with at most n parts whose set of shape column lengths less than n is R. We show that the number…
We prove that the permutations of $\{1,\dots, n\}$ having an increasing (resp., decreasing) subsequence of length $n-r$ index a subset of the set of all $r$th Kronecker powers of $n \times n$ permutation matrices which is a basis for the linear span of that set. Thanks to a known Schur--Weyl duality, this gives a new basis for the centralizer algebra of the partition algebra acting on the $r$th tensor power of a vector space. We give some related results on the set of doubly stochastic matrices in that algebra.
We prove Stanley's conjecture that, if delta_n is the staircase shape, then the skew Schur functions s_{delta_n / mu} are non-negative sums of Schur P-functions. We prove that the coefficients in this sum count certain fillings of shifted shapes. In particular, for the skew Schur function s_{delta_n / delta_{n-2}}, we discuss connections with Eulerian numbers and alternating permutations.
The notion of shuffle-compatible permutation statistics was implicit in Stanley's work on P-partitions and was first explicitly studied by Gessel and Zhuang. The aim of this paper is to prove that the triple ${\rm (udr, pk, des)}$ is shuffle-compatible as conjectured by Gessel and Zhuang, where ${\rm udr}$ denotes the number of up-down runs, ${\rm pk}$ denotes the peak number, and ${\rm des}$ denotes the descent number. This is accomplished by establishing an ${\rm (udr, pk, des)}$-preserving bijection in the spirit of Baker-Jarvis and Sagan's bijective proofs of shuffle-compatibility property…
We characterize the class of cycle decompositions that can achieve all Young tableau shapes (except the trivial ones with a single row or a single column) under the Robinson--Schensted--Knuth (RSK) correspondence, a property that we call RSK-completeness. We prove that for even $n$, cyclic permutations comprise the only fixed cycle decomposition that is RSK-complete. For odd $n$, cyclic permutations and almost cyclic permutations which have a cycle of length $n-1$ are the only RSK-complete cycle decompositions.
