Every character on a graded connected Hopf algebra decomposes uniquely as a product of an even character and an odd character (Aguiar, Bergeron, and Sottile, math.CO/0310016).
We obtain explicit formulas for the even and odd parts of the universal character on the Hopf algebra of quasi-symmetric functions. They can be described in terms of Legendre's beta function evaluated at half-integers, or in terms of bivariate Catalan numbers:
$$ C(m,n)=\frac{(2m)!(2n)!}{m!(m+n)!n!}. $$
Properties of characters and of quasi-symmetric functions are then used to derive several interesting identities among bivariate Catalan numbers and in particular among Catalan numbers and central binomial coefficients.
This work is a continuation of some recent articles presenting enumerative results for Catalan words avoiding one or a pair of consecutive or classical patterns of length $3$. More precisely, we provide systematically the bivariate generating function for the number of Catalan words avoiding a given pair of relations with respect to the length and the number of descents. We also present several constructive bijections preserving the number of descents. As a byproduct, we deduce the generating function for the total number of descents on all Catalan words of a given length and avoiding a pair o…
Catalan words are particular growth-restricted words over the set of non-negative integers, and they represent still another combinatorial class counted by the Catalan numbers. We study the distribution of descents on the sets of Catalan words avoiding a pattern of length at most three: for each such a pattern $p$ we provide a bivariate generating function where the coefficient of $x^ny^k$ in its series expansion is the number of length $n$ Catalan words with $k$ descents and avoiding $p$. As a byproduct, we enumerate the set of Catalan words avoiding $p$, and we provide the popularity of desc…
Catalan functions, the graded Euler characteristics of certain vector bundles on the flag variety, are a rich class of symmetric functions which include $k$-Schur functions and parabolic Hall-Littlewood polynomials. We prove that Catalan functions indexed by partition weight are the characters of $U_q(\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}}_\ell)$-generalized Demazure crystals as studied by Lakshmibai-Littelmann-Magyar and Naoi. We obtain Schur positive formulas for these functions, settling conjectures of Chen-Haiman and Shimozono-Weyman. Our approach more generally gives key positive formulas for graded Eul…
We prove that graded $k$-Schur functions are $G$-equivariant Euler characteristics of vector bundles on the flag variety, settling a conjecture of Chen-Haiman. We expose a new miraculous shift invariance property of the graded $k$-Schur functions and resolve the Schur positivity and $k$-branching conjectures in the strongest possible terms by providing direct combinatorial formulas using strong marked tableaux.
A finitization of the Catalan numbers $ C_n $ can be defined as Euler characteristics of an algebraic structure. We conjecture the existence of a $ q $-deformed version of such structure, and provide evidence for the first two non-trivial cases. This $ q $-deformed version will likely categorify series arise from identities of the Roger-Ramanujan type.
We define the notion of a Catalan pair (which is a pair of binary relations (S,R) satisfying certain axioms) with the aim of giving a common language to most of the combinatorial interpretations of Catalan numbers. We show, in particular, that the second component R uniquely determines the pair, and we give a characterization of R in terms of forbidden configurations. We also propose some generalizations of Catalan pairs arising from some slight modifications of (some of the) axioms.
Given a permutation $f$, we study the positroid Catalan number $C_f$ defined to be the torus-equivariant Euler characteristic of the associated open positroid variety. We introduce a class of repetition-free permutations and show that the corresponding positroid Catalan numbers count Dyck paths avoiding a convex subset of the rectangle. We show that any convex subset appears in this way. Conjecturally, the associated $q,t$-polynomials coincide with the generalized $q,t$-Catalan numbers that recently appeared in relation to the shuffle conjecture, flag Hilbert schemes, and Khovanov-Rozansky hom…
We obtain new combinatorial identities for integral values of binary Krawtchouk polynomials $K^{2m}_p(x)$, $0\le p\le 2m$, by computing the characters of the $p$-exterior representations on certain elements of order 2 of $\mathrm{SO}(2m)$. From this identities, we deduce several new relations for binomial coefficients and Catalan numbers.
The modular Catalan numbers $C_{k,n}$, introduced by Hein and Huang in 2016 count equivalence classes of parenthesizations of $x_0 * x_1 * \dots *x_n$ where $*$ is a binary $k$-associative operation and $k$ is a positive integer. The classical notion of associativity is just 1-associativity, in which case $C_{1,n} = 1$ and the size of the unique class is given by the Catalan number $C_n$. In this paper we introduce modular Fuss-Catalan numbers $C_{k,n}^{m}$ which count equivalence classes of parenthesizations of $x_0 * x_1 * \dots *x_n$ where $*$ is an $m$-ary $k$-associative operation for $m …
The classical parking functions, counted by the Cayley number (n+1)^(n-1), carry a natural permutation representation of the symmetric group S_n in which the number of orbits is the n'th Catalan number. In this paper, we will generalize this setup to rational parking functions indexed by a pair (a,b) of coprime positive integers. We show that these parking functions, which are counted by b^(a-1), carry a permutation representation of S_a in which the number of orbits is a rational Catalan number. We compute the Frobenius characteristic of the S_a-module of (a,b)-parking functions. Next we prop…
We study polynomial summation over unit circles over finite fields of odd characteristic, obtaining a purely algebraic integration theory without recourse to infinite procedures. There are nonetheless strong parallels to classical integration theory over a circle, and we show that the super Catalan numbers and closely related rational numbers lie at the heart of both theories. This gives a uniform analytic meaning to these up to now somewhat mysterious numbers. Our derivation utilises the three-fold symmetry of chromogeometry between Euclidean and relativistic geometries, and we find that the …
While there has been some progress on the decomposition of Kronecker products of characters of the symmetric groups in recent times, results on the symmetric and alternating part of Kronecker squares are still scarce. Here, new results (and conjectures) are presented on this splitting of the squares that contribute to a refined understanding of the Kronecker squares. Furthermore, connections to 2-modular decomposition numbers, Catalan combinatorics, and to the Saxl conjecture are discussed which further motivate the study of these splittings.
The Hankel determinants $\left(\frac{r}{2(i+j)+r}\binom{2(i+j)+r}{i+j}\right)_{0\leq i,j \leq n-1}$ of the convolution powers of Catalan numbers were considered by Cigler and by Cigler and Krattenthaler. We evaluate these determinants for $r\le 31$ by finding shifted periodic continued fractions, which arose in application of Sulanke and Xin's continued fraction method. These include some of the conjectures of Cigler as special cases. We also conjectured a polynomial characterization of these determinants. The same technique is used to evaluate the Hankel determinants $\left(\binom{2(i+j)+r}{i…
The aim of this paper is two-fold. We first prove several new interpretations of a kind of $(q,t)$-Catalan numbers along with their corresponding $γ$-expansions using pattern avoiding permutations. Secondly, we give a complete characterization of certain $(-1)$-phenomenon for each subset of permutations avoiding a single pattern of length three, and discuss their $q$-analogues utilizing the newly obtained $q$-$γ$-expansions, as well as the continued fraction of a quint-variate generating function due to Shin and the fourth author. Moreover, we enumerate the alternating permutations avoiding si…
Recent work of the first author, Negut and Rasmussen, and of Oblomkov and Rozansky in the context of Khovanov--Rozansky knot homology produces a family of polynomials in $q$ and $t$ labeled by integer sequences. These polynomials can be expressed as equivariant Euler characteristics of certain line bundles on flag Hilbert schemes. The $q,t$-Catalan numbers and their rational analogues are special cases of this construction. In this paper, we give a purely combinatorial treatment of these polynomials and show that in many cases they have nonnegative integer coefficients. For sequences of length…
During the study of dual sequences, Sun introduced the polynomials \[ D_n(x,y)=\sum_{k=0}^{n}{n\choose k}{x\choose k}y^k\text{ and } S_n(x,y)=\sum_{k=0}^{n}\binom{n}{k}\binom{x}{k}\binom{-1-x}{k} y^k. \] Many related congruences have been established and conjectured by Sun. Here we generalize some of them by determining \[ \sum_{k=0}^{p-1}D_k(x_1,y_1)D_k(x_2,y_2)\pmod p \text{ and } \sum_{k=0}^{p-1}S_k(x_1,y_1)S_k(x_2,y_2)\pmod p \] for any odd prime $p$ and $p$-adic integers $x_i,\ y_i$ with $i\in\{1,2\}$. Considering the immediate connection between binomial coefficients and Catalan numbers,…
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…
In 1995, the first author introduced a multivariate generating function {$G$} that tracks the distribution of ascents and descents in labeled binary trees. In addition to proving that $G$ is symmetric, he conjectured that $G$ is Schur positive. We prove this conjecture by expanding $G$ positively in terms of ribbon Schur functions. We obtain this expansion using a weight-preserving bijection whose inverse is inspired by the Push-Glide algorithm of Préville-Ratelle and Viennot. In fact, this weight-preserving bijection allows us to establish a stronger version of the first author's conjecture s…
In this paper we study spectral zeta functions associated to finite and infinite graphs. First we establish a meromorphic continuation of these functions under some general conditions. Then we study special values in the case of standard lattice graphs associated to free abelian groups. In particular we connect it to Catalan numbers in several ways, and obtain some non-trivial special values and functional symmetries. Furthermore we relate the values at the negative integers with the more studied Ihara zeta functions, and prove a few minor results that seem not to have been recorded before. Fi…
We prove that the $K$-$k$-Schur functions are part of a family of inhomogenous symmetric functions whose top homogeneous components are Catalan functions, the Euler characteristics of certain vector bundles on the flag variety. Lam-Schilling-Shimozono identified the $K$-$k$-Schur functions as Schubert representatives for $K$-homology of the affine Grassmannian for SL$_{k+1}$. Our perspective reveals that the $K$-$k$-Schur functions satisfy a shift invariance property, and we deduce positivity of their branching coefficients from a positivity result of Baldwin and Kumar. We further show that a …
We show that matchings avoiding certain partial patterns are counted by the 3-Catalan numbers. We give a characterization of 12312-avoiding matchings in terms of restrictions on the corresponding oscillating tableaux. We also find a bijection between Schröder paths without peaks at level one and matchings avoiding both patterns 12312 and 121323. Such objects are counted by the super-Catalan numbers or the little Schröder numbers. A refinement of the super-Catalan numbers is obtained by fixing the number of crossings in the matchings. In the sense of Wilf-equivalence, we find that the patterns …
We provide operadic interpretations for two Hopf subalgebras of the algebra of parking functions. The Catalan subalgebra is identified with the free duplicial algebra on one generator, and the Schröder subalgebra is interpreted by means of a new operad, which we call triduplicial. The noncommutative Lagrange inversion formula is then interpreted in terms of duplicial structures. The generic solution of the noncommutative inversion problem appears as the formal sum of all parking functions. This suggests that combinatorial generating functions derived by functional inversion should be obtainabl…
We give a new Jacobi--Trudi-type formula for characters of finite-dimensional irreducible representations in type $C_n$ using characters of the fundamental representations and non-intersecting lattice paths. We give equivalent determinant formulas for the decomposition multiplicities for tensor powers of the spin representation in type $B_n$ and the exterior representation in type $C_n$. This gives a combinatorial proof of an identity of Katz and equates such a multiplicity with the dimension of an irreducible representation in type $C_n$. By taking certain specializations, we obtain identitie…
We introduce several associative algebras and series of vector spaces associated to these algebras. Using lattice vertex operators, we obtain dimension and character formulae for these spaces. In particular, we a series of representations of symmetric groups which turn out to be isomorphic to parking function modules. We also construct series of vector spaces whose dimensions are Catalan numbers and Fuss--Catalan numbers respectively. Conjecturally, these spaces are related to spaces of global sections of vector bundles on (zero fibres of) Hilbert schemes and representations of rational Chered…
We study arithmetic progressions $\{a,a+b,a+2b,\dots,a+(\ell-1) b\}$, with $\ell\ge 3$, in random subsets of the initial segment of natural numbers $[n]:=\{1,2,\dots, n\}$. Given $p\in[0,1]$ we denote by $[n]_p$ the random subset of $[n]$ which includes every number with probability $p$, independently of one another. The focus lies on sparse random subsets, i.e.\ when $p=p(n)=o(1)$ as $n\to+\infty$. Let $X_\ell$ denote the number of distinct arithmetic progressions of length $\ell$ which are contained in $[n]_p$. We determine the limiting distribution for $X_\ell$ not only for fixed $\ell\ge 3…
