We define and study a new family of polytopes which are formed as convex hulls of partial alternating sign matrices. We determine the inequality descriptions, number of facets, and face lattices of these polytopes. We also study partial permutohedra that we show arise naturally as projections of these polytopes. We enumerate facets and also characterize the face lattices of partial permutohedra in terms of chains in the Boolean lattice. Finally, we have a result and a conjecture on the volume of partial permutohedra when one parameter is fixed to be two.
In [Baumeister, H., Nill, Paffenholz, On permutation polytopes, Adv. Math. 222 (2009), 431-452 / arXiv:0709.1615] we conjectured a characterization of subgroups H of a permutation group G so that, on the level of permutation polytopes, P(H) is a face of P(G). Here we present the embarrassingly simple proof of this conjecture.
This paper focuses on determining the volumes of permutation polytopes associated to cyclic groups, dihedral groups, groups of automorphisms of tree graphs, and Frobenius groups. We do this through the use of triangulations and the calculation of Ehrhart polynomials. We also present results on the theta body hierarchy of various permutation polytopes.
We introduce Lipschitz functions on a finite partially ordered set $P$ and study the associated Lipschitz polytope $L(P)$. The geometry of $L(P)$ can be described in terms of descent-compatible permutations and permutation statistics that generalize descents and big ascents. For ranked posets, Lipschitz polytopes are centrally-symmetric and Gorenstein, which implies symmetry and unimodality of the statistics. Finally, we define $(P,k)$-hypersimplices as generalizations of classical hypersimplices and give combinatorial interpretations of their volumes and $h^*$-vectors.
In this paper we study an alternating sign matrix analogue of the Chan-Robbins-Yuen polytope, which we call the ASM-CRY polytope. We show that this polytope has Catalan many vertices and its volume is equal to the number of standard Young tableaux of staircase shape; we also determine its Ehrhart polynomial. We achieve the previous by proving that the members of a family of faces of the alternating sign matrix polytope which includes ASM-CRY are both order and flow polytopes. Inspired by the above results, we relate three established triangulations of order and flow polytopes, namely Stanley's…
We define the alternating sign matrix polytope as the convex hull of nxn alternating sign matrices and prove its equivalent description in terms of inequalities. This is analogous to the well known result of Birkhoff and von Neumann that the convex hull of the permutation matrices equals the set of all nonnegative doubly stochastic matrices. We count the facets and vertices of the alternating sign matrix polytope and describe its projection to the permutohedron as well as give a complete characterization of its face lattice in terms of modified square ice configurations. Furthermore we prove t…
Symmetry plays a fundamental role in design of experiments. In particular, symmetries of factorial designs that preserve their statistical properties are exploited to find designs with the best statistical properties. By using a result proved by Rosenberg [6], the concept of the LP relaxation orthogonal array polytope is developed and studied. A complete characterization of the permutation symmetry group of this polytope is made. Also, this characterization is verified computationally for many cases. Finally, a proof is provided.
In this paper, we investigate two properties concerning the unimodality of the $δ$-vectors of lattice polytopes, which are log-concavity and alternatingly increasingness. For lattice polytopes $\mathcal{P}$ of dimension $d$, we prove that the dilated lattice polytopes $n\mathcal{P}$ have strictly log-concave and strictly alternatingly increasing $δ$-vectors if $n > \max\{s,d+1-s\}$, where $s$ is the degree of the $δ$-polynomial of $\mathcal{P}$. The bound $\max\{s,d+1-s\}$ for $n$ is reasonable. We also provide several kinds of unimodal (or non-unimodal) $δ$-vectors. Concretely, we give exampl…
This survey of alternating permutations and Euler numbers includes refinements of Euler numbers, other occurrences of Euler numbers, longest alternating subsequences, umbral enumeration of classes of alternating permutations, and the cd-index of the symmetric group.
We prove generalized versions of some conjectures of Joel Lewis on the number of alternating permutations avoiding certain patterns. Our main tool is the perhaps surprising observation that a classic bijection on pattern avoiding permutations often preserves the alternating property.
We construct a refined bijection $ϕ$ between alternating permutations and 0-1-2 increasing trees with degree at most 2. It satisfies that the first element of alternating permutation $π$ is equal to the first vertex in $ϕ(π)$ in the postorder.
A conjecture by R. Stanley on a class of alternating permutations, which is proved by R. Chapman and L. Williams states that alternating permutations with the maximal number of fixed points is equidistributed with derangements. We extend this (type $A$) result to type $B$: We prove that various classes of alternating signed permutations with the maximal number of fixed points is equidistributed with certain types of derangements (of type $B$), respectively.
Using the correspondence between a cycle up-down permutation and a pair of matchings, we give a combinatorial proof of the enumeration of alternating permutations according to the given peak set.
Guibert and Linusson introduced the family of doubly alternating Baxter permutations, i.e. Baxter permutations $σ\in S_n$, such that $σ$ and $σ^{-1}$ are alternating. They proved that the number of such permutations in $S_{2n}$ and $S_{2n+1}$ is the Catalan number $C_n$. In this paper we explore the expected limit shape of such permutations, following the approach by Miner and Pak.
This paper is continuation of the systematic study of distribution of quadrant marked mesh patterns. We study quadrant marked mesh patterns on up-down and down-up permutations, also known as alternating and reverse alternating permutations, respectively. In particular, we refine classic enumeration results of André on alternating permutations by showing that the distribution of the quadrant marked mesh pattern of interest is given by $(\sec(xt))^{1/x}$ on up-down permutations of even length and by $\int_0^t (\sec(xz))^{1+\frac{1}{x}}dz$ on down-up permutations of odd length.
In this paper, we give bijections between the set of 4123-avoiding down-up alternating permutations of length $2n$ and the set of standard Young tableaux of shape $(n,n,n)$, and between the set of 4123-avoiding down-up alternating permutations of length $2n-1$ and the set of shifted standard Young tableaux of shape $(n+1, n, n-1)$ via an intermediate structure of Yamanouchi words. Moreover, we get the enumeration of 4123-avoiding up-down alternating permutations of even and odd length by presenting bijections between 4123-avoiding up-down alternating permutations and standard Young tableaux.
Let R(n,k) denote the number of permutations of {1,2,...,n} with k alternating runs. We find a grammatical description of the numbers R(n,k) and then present several convolution formulas involving the generating function for the numbers R(n,k). Moreover, we establish a connection between alternating runs and Andre permutations.
The finite difference equation system introduced by Christiane Poupard in the study of tangent trees is reinterpreted in the alternating permutation environment. It makes it possible to make a joint study of both tangent and secant trees and calculate the generating polynomial for alternating permutations by a new statistic, referred to as being the greater neighbor of the maximum.
In this paper, we first consider a generalization of the David-Barton identity which relate the alternating run polynomials to Eulerian polynomials. By using context-free grammars, we then present a combinatorial interpretation of a family of q-alternating run polynomials. Furthermore, we introduce the definition of semi-gamma-positive polynomial and we show the semi-gamma-positivity of the alternating run polynomials of dual Stirling permutations. A connection between the up-down run polynomials of permutations and the alternating run polynomials of dual Stirling permutations is established.
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…
A Parity Alternating Permutation of the set $[n] = \{1, 2,\ldots, n\}$ is a permutation with even and odd entries alternatively. We deal with parity alternating permutations having an odd entry in the first position, PAPs. We study the numbers that count the PAPs with even as well as odd parity. We also study a subclass of PAPs being derangements as well, Parity Alternating Derangements (PADs). Moreover, by considering the parity of these PADs we look into their statistical property of excedance.
We give two simple proofs of a conjecture of Richard Stanley concerning the equidistribution of derangements and alternating permutations with the maximal number of fixed points.
Motivated by the study of polytopes formed as the convex hull of permutation matrices and alternating sign matrices, we define several new families of polytopes as convex hulls of sign matrices, which are certain {0,1,-1}-matrices in bijection with semistandard Young tableaux. We investigate various properties of these polytopes, including their inequality descriptions, vertices, facets, and face lattices, as well as connections to alternating sign matrix polytopes and transportation polytopes.
Let $R(n,k)$ denote the number of permutations of ${1,2,...,n}$ with $k$ alternating runs. In this note we present an explicit formula for the numbers $R(n,k)$.
A permutation polytope is the convex hull of a group of permutation matrices. In this paper we investigate the combinatorics of permutation polytopes and their faces. As applications we completely classify permutation polytopes in dimensions 2,3,4, and the corresponding permutation groups up to a suitable notion of equivalence. We also provide a list of combinatorial types of possibly occuring faces of permutation polytopes up to dimension four.
We study the problem of counting alternating permutations avoiding collections of permutation patterns including 132. We construct a bijection between the set S_n(132) of 132-avoiding permutations and the set A_{2n + 1}(132) of alternating, 132-avoiding permutations. For every set p_1, ..., p_k of patterns and certain related patterns q_1, ..., q_k, our bijection restricts to a bijection between S_n(132, p_1, ..., p_k), the set of permutations avoiding 132 and the p_i, and A_{2n + 1}(132, q_1, ..., q_k), the set of alternating permutations avoiding 132 and the q_i. This reduces the enumeration…
In this paper, we take interest in finding applications for a hook-length formula recently proved in (Morales Pak Panova 2016). This formula can be applied to give a non trivial relation between alternating permutations and weighted Dyck paths. First, we give an alternative proof for this result using continued fractions, and then we apply a similar reasoning to the more general case of $k$-alternating permutations.
The combinatorial theory for the set of parity alternating permutations is expounded. In view of the numbers of ascents and inversions, several enumerative aspects of the set are investigated. In particular, it is shown that signed Eulerian numbers have intimate relationships to the set.
In this paper we present an explicit formula for the number of permutations with a given number of alternating descents. Moreover, we study the interlacing property of the real parts of the zeros of the generating polynomials of these numbers.
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.
An alternating permutation of length $n$ is a permutation $π=π_1 π_2 ... π_n$ such that $π_1 < π_2 > π_3 < π_4 > ...$. Let $A_n$ denote set of alternating permutations of ${1,2,..., n}$, and let $A_n(σ)$ be set of alternating permutations in $A_n$ that avoid a pattern $σ$. Recently, Lewis used generating trees to enumerate $A_{2n}(1234)$, $A_{2n}(2143)$ and $A_{2n+1}(2143)$, and he posed several conjectures on the Wilf-equivalence of alternating permutations avoiding certain patterns. Some of these conjectures have been proved by Bóna, Xu and Yan. In this paper, we prove the two relations $|A_…
In this paper, we count a dual set of Stirling permutations by the number of alternating runs. Properties of the generating functions, including recurrence relations, grammatical interpretations and convolution formulas are studied.
A permutation is said to be \emph{alternating} if it starts with rise and then descents and rises come in turn. In this paper we study the generating function for the number of alternating permutations on $n$ letters that avoid or contain exactly once 132 and also avoid or contain exactly once an arbitrary pattern on $k$ letters. In several interesting cases the generating function depends only on $k$ and is expressed via Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind.
We present a short, direct proof of the fact that the generating function of all permutations of a fixed length $n\geq 4$ is divisible by $(1+z)^m$, where $m=\lfloor (n-2)/2 \rfloor$.
Let R(n,k) be the number of permutations of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ with k alternating runs. In this paper, we establish the relationships between R(n,k) and the central factorial numbers of even indices as well as the number of signed permutations with a given number of alternating runs and the central factorial numbers of odd indices. The explicit formulas of the peak and left peak polynomials for permutations and the derivative polynomials of the tangent and secant functions are also established.
We investigate pattern avoidance in alternating permutations and generalizations thereof. First, we study pattern avoidance in an alternating analogue of Young diagrams. In particular, we extend Babson-West's notion of shape-Wilf equivalence to apply to alternating permutations and so generalize results of Backelin-West-Xin and Ouchterlony to alternating permutations. Second, we study pattern avoidance in the more general context of permutations with restricted ascents and descents. We consider a question of Lewis regarding permutations that are the reading words of thickened staircase Young t…
At a crossroads of calculus and combinatorics, the generating function of secant and tangent numbers (Euler numbers) provides enumeration of alternating permutations. In this article, we present a new refinement of Euler numbers to answer the combinatorial question on some particular relation of Euler numbers proved by Heneghan-Petersen, Power series for up-down min-max permutations, College Math. Journal, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2014), 83-91.
The length is(w) of the longest increasing subsequence of a permutation w in the symmetric group S_n has been the object of much investigation. We develop comparable results for the length as(w) of the longest alternating subsequence of w, where a sequence a,b,c,d,... is alternating if a>b<c>d<.... For instance, the expected value (mean) of as(w) for w in S_n is exactly (4n+1)/6 if n>1.
We find the exponential generating function for permutations with all valleys even and all peaks odd, and use it to determine the asymptotics for its coefficients, answering a question posed by Liviu Nicolaescu. The generating function can be expressed as the reciprocal of a sum involving Euler numbers. We give two proofs of the formula. The first uses a system of differential equations. The second proof derives the generating function directly from general permutation enumeration techniques, using noncommutative symmetric functions. The generating function is an "alternating" analogue of Davi…
This paper is continuation of the systematic study of distribution of quadrant marked mesh patterns initiated in "S. Kitaev and J. Remmel, Quadrant marked mesh patterns, J. Integer Sequences 12, Issue 4 (2012), Article 12.4.7.". We study quadrant marked mesh patterns on up-down and down-up permutations.
A positroid is a special case of a realizable matroid that arose from the study of the totally nonnegative part of the Grassmannian by Postnikov. In this paper, we study the facets of its matroid polytope and the independent set polytope. This allows one to describe the bases and independent sets directly from the decorated permutation, bypassing the use of the Grassmann necklace. We also describe a criterion for determining whether a given cyclic interval is a flat or not using the decorated permutation, then show how it applies to checking the concordancy of positroids.
We study proportions of consecutive occurrences of permutations of a given size. Specifically, the limit of such proportions on large permutations forms a region, called \emph{feasible region}. We show that this feasible region is a polytope, more precisely the cycle polytope of a specific graph called \emph{overlap graph}. This allows us to compute the dimension, vertices and faces of the polytope, and to determine the equations that define it. Finally we prove that the limit of classical occurrences and consecutive occurrences are in some sense independent. As a consequence, the scaling limi…
The weighted projection of an alternating sign matrix (ASM) was introduced by Brualdi and Dahl (2018) as a step towards characterising a generalisation of Latin squares they introduced using alternating sign hypermatrices. If $z_n = (n,\dots,2,1)$, then the weighted projection of an ASM $A$ is equal to $z_n^TA$. Brualdi and Dahl proved that the weighted projection of an $n \times n$ ASM is majorized by the vector $z_n$, and conjectured that any positive integer vector majorized by $z_n$ is the weighted projection of some ASM. The main result of this paper presents a proof of this conjecture, v…
Inspired by a recent note of Zeilberger (arXiv:1110.4379), Alejandro Morales asked whether one can count alternating (i.e., up-down) permutations that contain the pattern 123 or 321 exactly once. In this note we answer the question in the affirmative; in particular, we show that for m > 1, a_(2m)(123) = 10 (2m)!/((m - 2)! (m + 3)!), a_(2m)(321) = 4(m - 2) (2m + 3)!/((m + 1)! (m + 4)!), and a_(2m + 1)(123) = a_(2m + 1)(321) = 3(3m + 4)(m - 1) (2m + 2)!/((m + 1)! (m + 4)!) where a_n(p) is the number of alternating permutations of length n containing the pattern p exactly once.
A classical result of Euler states that the tangent numbers are an alternating sum of Eulerian numbers. A dual result of Roselle states that the secant numbers can be obtained by a signed enumeration of derangements. We show that both identities can be refined with the following statistics: the number of crossings in permutations and derangements, and the number of patterns 31-2 in alternating permutations. Using previous results of Corteel, Rubey, Prellberg, and the author, we derive closed formulas for both q-tangent and q-secant numbers. There are two different methods to obtain these formu…
Alternating sign triangles were introduced by Carroll and Speyer in relation to cube recurrence, by analogy to alternating sign matrices for octahedron recurrence. Permutation triangles are the alternating sign triangles whose entries are either 0 or 1, by analogy with permutation matrices. In this paper, we prove a simple characterization of permutation triangles, originally conjectured by Glick. We will also prove some properties of alternating sign triangles.
We clarify the notion of effective equivalence and characterize geometrically the effectively equivalent permutation groups. In particular, we present examples showing that the latter do not correspond to affinely equivalent polytopes thereby answering Question 2.12 of [BHNP09]. We apply our characterization to our examples and formulate several questions.
Springer numbers are an analog of Euler numbers for the group of signed permutations. Arnol'd showed that they count some objects called snakes, that generalize alternating permutations. Hoffman established a link between Springer numbers, snakes, and some polynomials related with the successive derivatives of trigonometric functions. The goal of this article is to give further combinatorial properties of derivative polynomials, in terms of snakes and other objects: cycle-alternating permutations, weighted Dyck or Motzkin paths, increasing trees and forests. We obtain the generating functions,…
We study proportions of consecutive occurrences of permutations of a given size. Specifically, the feasible limits of such proportions on large permutations form a region, called feasible region. We show that this feasible region is a polytope, more precisely the cycle polytope of a specific graph called overlap graph. This allows us to compute the dimension, vertices and faces of the polytope. Finally, we prove that the limits of classical occurrences and consecutive occurrences are independent, in some sense made precise in the extended abstract. As a consequence, the scaling limit of a sequ…
We use the theory of symmetric functions to enumerate various classes of alternating permutations w of {1,2,...,n}. These classes include the following: (1) both w and w^{-1} are alternating, (2) w has certain special shapes, such as (m-1,m-2,...,1), under the RSK algorithm, (3) w has a specified cycle type, and (4) w has a specified number of fixed points. We also enumerate alternating permutations of a multiset. Most of our formulas are umbral expressions where after expanding the expression in powers of a variable E, E^k is interpreted as the Euler number E_k. As a small corollary, we obtai…
Each group G of nxn permutation matrices has a corresponding permutation polytope, P(G):=conv(G) in R^{nxn}. We relate the structure of P(G) to the transitivity of G. In particular, we show that if G has t nontrivial orbits, then min{2t,floor(n/2)} is a sharp upper bound on the diameter of the graph of P(G); so if G is transitive, the diameter is at most 2. We also show that P(G) achieves its maximal dimension of (n-1)^2 precisely when G is 2-transitive. We then extend results of I. Pak on mixing times for a random walk on P(G). Our work depends on a new result for permutation groups involving…
We define a class L_{n, k} of permutations that generalizes alternating (up-down) permutations and give bijective proofs of certain pattern-avoidance results for this class. As a special case of our results, we give two bijections between the set A_{2n}(1234) of alternating permutations of length 2n with no four-term increasing subsequence and standard Young tableaux of shape (3^n), and between the set A_{2n + 1}(1234) and standard Young tableaux of shape (3^{n - 1}, 2, 1). This represents the first enumeration of alternating permutations avoiding a pattern of length four. We also extend previ…
We consider the structure of roller coaster permutations as introduced by Ahmed & Snevily[1]. A roller coaster permutation is described as a permuta- tion that maximizes the total switches from ascending to descending or visa versa for the permutation and all of its subpermutations simultaneously. This paper looks at the alternating structure of these permutations and then we introduce a notion of a condition stronger than alternating for a permutation that we shall refer to as recursively alternating. We also examine the behav- ior of what entries can show up in even, odd, and end positions w…
The Birkhoff polytope, defined to be the convex hull of $n\times n$ permutation matrices, is a well studied polytope in the context of the Ehrhart theory. This polytope is known to have many desirable properties, such as the Gorenstein property and existence of regular, unimodular triangulations. In this paper, we study analogues of the Birkhoff polytope for finite irreducible Coxeter groups of other types. We focus on a type-$B$ Birkhoff polytope $\mathcal{BB}(n)$ arising from signed permutation matrices and prove that it and its dual polytope are reflexive, and hence Gorenstein, and also pos…
