In this paper we look at polynomials arising from statistics on the classes of involutions, $I_n$, and involutions with no fixed points, $J_n$, in the symmetric group. Our results are motivated by F. Brenti's conjecture which states that the Eulerian distribution of $I_n$ is log-concave. Symmetry of the generating functions is shown for the statistics $des,maj$ and the joint distribution $(des,maj)$. We show that $exc$ is log-concave on $I_n$, $inv$ is log-concave on $J_n$ and $des$ is partially unimodal on both $I_n$ and $J_n$. We also give recurrences and explicit forms for the generating functions of the inversions statistic on involutions in Coxeter groups of types $B_n$ and $D_n$. Symmetry and unimodality of $inv$ is shown on the subclass of signed permutations in $D_n$ with no fixed points. In light of these new results, we present further conjectures at the end of the paper.
Taking transposes of Standard Young Tableaux defines a natural involution on the set $I(n)$ of involutions of length $n$ via the the Robinson-Schensted correspondence. In some cases, this involution can be defined without resorting to the Robinson-Schensted correspondence. As a byproduct, we get an interesting generalization of layered permutations.
This thesis deals with three different aspects of the combinatorics of permutations. In the first two papers, two flavours of pattern avoiding permutations are examined; and in the third paper Young tableaux, which are closely related to permutations via representation theory, are studied. In the first paper we give solutations to several interesting problems regarding pattern avoiding doubly alternating permutations, such as finding a bijection between 1234-avoiding permutations and 1234-avoiding doubly alternating permutations of twice the size. In the second paper partial permutations which…
A centrosymmetric permutation is one which is invariant under the reverse-complement operation, or equivalently one whose associated standard Young tableaux under the Robinson-Schensted algorithm are both invariant under the Schutzenberger involution. In this paper, we characterize the set of permutations avoiding 1243 and 2143 whose images under the reverse-complement mapping also avoid these patterns. We also characterize in a simple manner the corresponding Schroder paths under a bijection of Egge and Mansour. We then use these results to enumerate centrosymmetric permutations avoiding the …
It is well-known that any permutation can be written as a product of two involutions. We provide an explicit formula for the number of ways to do so, depending only on the cycle type of the permutation. In many cases, these numbers are sums of absolute values of irreducible characters of the symmetric group evaluated at the same permutation, although apart from the case where all cycles are the same size, we have no good explanation for why this should be so.
This dissertation presents a multifaceted look into the structural decomposition of permutation classes. The theory of permutation patterns is a rich and varied field, and is a prime example of how an accessible and intuitive definition leads to increasingly deep and significant line of research. The use of geometric structural reasoning, coupled with analytic and probabilistic techniques, provides a concrete framework from which to develop new enumerative techniques and forms the underlying foundation to this study.
In a recent paper, Backelin, West and Xin describe a map $ϕ^*$ that recursively replaces all occurrences of the pattern $k... 21$ in a permutation $σ$ by occurrences of the pattern $(k-1)... 21 k$. The resulting permutation $ϕ^*(σ)$ contains no decreasing subsequence of length $k$. We prove that, rather unexpectedly, the map $ϕ^*$ commutes with taking the inverse of a permutation. In the BWX paper, the definition of $ϕ^*$ is actually extended to full rook placements on a Ferrers board (the permutations correspond to square boards), and the construction of the map $ϕ^*$ is the key step in provi…
We prove that in a large collection of naturally defined sets of permutations of fixed length, the numbers of permutations at Ulam distance k from the identity form a log-concave sequence in k.
We complete the Wilf classification of signed patterns of length 5 for both signed permutations and signed involutions. New general equivalences of patterns are given which prove Jaggard's conjectures concerning involutions in the symmetric group avoiding certain patterns of length 5 and 6. In this way, we also complete the Wilf classification of S_5, S_6, and S_7 for both permutations and involutions.
Any permutation has a disjoint cycle decomposition and concept generates an equivalence class on the symmetry group called the cycle-type. The main focus of this work is on permutations of restricted cycle-types, with particular emphasis on the special class of involutions and their partial sums. The paper provides generating functions, determinantal expressions, asymptotic estimates as well as arithmetic and combinatorial properties.
There are (at least) three bijections from Dyck paths to 321-avoiding permutations in the literature, due to Billey-Jockusch-Stanley, Krattenthaler, and Mansour-Deng-Du. How different are they? Denoting them B,K,M respectively, we show that M = B \circ L = K \circ L' where L is the classical Kreweras-Lalanne involution on Dyck paths and L', also an involution, is a sort of derivative of L. Thus K^{-1} \circ B, a measure of the difference between B and K, is the product of involutions L' \circ L and turns out to be a very curious bijection: as a permutation on Dyck n-paths it is an nth root of …
Let $\mathcal I_n$ and $\mathcal J_n$ denote the set of involutions and fixed-point free involutions of $\{1, \dots, n\}$, respectively, and let $\text{des}(π)$ denote the number of descents of the permutation $π$. We prove a conjecture of Guo and Zeng which states that $I_n(t) := \sum_{π\in \mathcal I_n} t^{\text{des}(π)}$ is $γ$-positive for $n \ge 1$ and $J_{2n}(t) := \sum_{π\in \mathcal J_{2n}} t^{\text{des}(π)}$ is $γ$-positive for $n \ge 9$. We also prove that the number of $(3412, 3421)$-avoiding permutations with $m$ double descents and $k$ descents is equal to the number of separable …
Dokos et. al. studied the distribution of two statistics over permutations $\mathfrak{S}_n$ of $\{1,2,\dots, n\}$ that avoid one or more length three patterns. A permutation $σ\in\mathfrak{S}_n$ contains a pattern $π\in\mathfrak{S}_k$ if $σ$ has a subsequence of length $k$ whose letters are in the same relative order as $π$. This paper is a comprehensive study of the same two statistics, number of inversions and major index, over involutions $\mathcal{I}_n=\{σ\in\mathfrak{S}_n:σ^2=\text{id}\}$ that avoid one or more length three patterns. The equalities between the generating functions are con…
Let $\mathcal{S}_n(π)$ (resp. $\mathcal{I}_n(π)$ and $\mathcal{AI}_n(π)$) denote the set of permutations (resp. involutions and alternating involutions) of length $n$ which avoid the permutation pattern $π$. For $k,m\geq 1$, Backelin-West-Xin proved that $|\mathcal{S}_n(12\cdots kτ)|= |\mathcal{S}_n(k\cdots 21τ)|$ by establishing a bijection between these two sets, where $τ= τ_1τ_2\cdots τ_m$ is an arbitrary permutation of $k+1,k+2,\ldots,k+m$. The result has been extended to involutions by Bousquet-Mélou and Steingrímsson and to alternating permutations by the first author. In this paper, we …
An involution is a permutation that is its own inverse. Given a permutation $σ$ of $[n],$ let $\mathbf{N}_{n}(σ)$ denote the number of ways to write $σ$ as a product of two involutions of $[n].$ If we endow the symmetric groups $S_{n}$ with uniform probability measures, then the random variables ${\mathbf N}_{n}$ are asymptotically lognormal. The proof is based upon the observation that, for most permutations $σ$, $\mathbf{N}_{n}(σ)$ can be well approximated by $\mathbf{B}_{n}(σ),$ the product of the cycle lengths of $σ$. Asymptotic lognormality of $\mathbf{N}_{n}$ can therefore be deduced fro…
We introduce ballot matrices, a signed combinatorial structure whose definition naturally follows from the generating function for labeled interval orders. A sign reversing involution on ballot matrices is defined. We show that matrices fixed under this involution are in bijection with labeled interval orders and that they decompose to a pair consisting of a permutation and an inversion table. To fully classify such pairs, results pertaining to the enumeration of permutations having a given set of ascent bottoms are given. This allows for a new formula for the number of labeled interval orders…
In this paper we study the cycle descent statistic on permutations. Several involutions on permutations and derangements are constructed. Moreover, we construct a bijection between negative cycle descent permutations and Callan perfect matchings.
Let I_n(π) denote the number of involutions in the symmetric group S_n which avoid the permutation π. We say that two permutations α,β\in§{j} may be exchanged if for every n, k, and ordering τof j+1,...,k, we have I_n(ατ)=I_n(βτ). Here we prove that 12 and 21 may be exchanged and that 123 and 321 may be exchanged. The ability to exchange 123 and 321 implies a conjecture of Guibert, thus completing the classification of S_4 with respect to pattern avoidance by involutions; both of these results also have consequences for longer patterns. Pattern avoidance by involutions may be generalized to ro…
Inspired by work of McKay, Morse, and Wilf, we give an exact count of the involutions in S_n which contain a given permutation τin S_k as a subsequence; this number depends on the patterns of the first j values of τfor 1<=j<=k. We then use this to define a partition of S_k, analogous to Wilf-classes in the study of pattern avoidance, and examine properties of this equivalence. In the process, we show that a permutation τ_1...τ_k is layered iff, for 1<=j<=k, the pattern of τ_1...τ_j is an involution. We also obtain a result of Sagan and Stanley counting the standard Young tableaux of size $n$ w…
In [Decompositions and statistics for β(1,0)-trees and nonseparable permutations, Advances Appl. Math. 42 (2009) 313--328] we introduced an involution, h, on β(1,0)-trees. We neglected, however, to prove that h indeed is an involution. In this note we provide the missing proof. We also refine an equidistribution result given in the same paper.
We provide constructions of bent functions using triples of permutations. This approach is due to Mesnager. In general, involutions have been mostly considered in such a machinery; we provide some other suitable triples of permutations, using monomials, binomials, trinomials, and quadrinomials.
Laguerre histories (restricted or not) are certain weighted Motzkin paths with two types of level steps. They are, on one hand, in natural bijection with the set of permutations, and on the other hand, yield combinatorial interpretations for the moments of Laguerre polynomials via Flajolet's combinatorial theory of continued fractions. In this paper, we first introduce a reflection-like involution on restricted Laguerre histories. Then, we demonstrate its power by composing this involution with three bijections due to Fran\ccon-Viennot, Foata-Zeilberger, and Yan-Zhou-Lin, respectively. A host …
In this article we consider the cycle structure of compositions of pairs of involutions in the symmetric group S_n chosen uniformly at random. These can be modeled as modified 2-regular graphs, giving rise to exponential generating functions. A composition of two random involutions in S_n typically has about n^(1/2) cycles, and the cycles are characteristically of length n^(1/2). Compositions of two random fixed-point-free involutions, on the other hand, typically have about log n cycles and are closely related to permutations with all cycle lengths even. The number of factorizations of a rand…
We study generating functions for the number of involutions in $S_n$ avoiding (or containing once) 132, and avoiding (or containing once) an arbitrary permutation $τ$ on $k$ letters. In several interesting cases the generating function depends only on $k$ and is expressed via Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind. In particular, we establish that involutions avoiding both 132 and $12... k$ have the same enumerative formula according to the length than involutions avoiding both 132 and any {\em double-wedge pattern} possibly followed by fixed points of total length $k$. Many results are also…
$β(1,0)$-trees provide a convenient description of rooted non-separable planar maps. The involution $h$ on $β(1,0)$-trees was introduced to prove a complicated equidistribution result on a class of pattern-avoiding permutations. In this paper, we describe and enumerate fixed points of the involution $h$. Intriguingly, the fixed points are equinumerous with the fixed points under taking the dual map on rooted non-separable planar maps, even though the fixed points do not go to each other under the know (natural) bijection between the trees and the maps.
Let $W$ be a finite Coxeter group and $X$ a subset of $W$. The length polynomial $L_{W,X}(t)$ is defined by $L_{W,X}(t) = \sum_{x \in X} t^{\ell(x)}$, where $\ell$ is the length function on $W$. In this article we derive expressions for the length polynomial where $X$ is any conjugacy class of involutions, or the set of all involutions, in any finite Coxeter group $W$. In particular, these results correct errors in the paper "Permutation statistics on involutions", W.M.B. Dukes., European J. Combin. 28 (2007), 186--198. for the involution length polynomials of Coxeter groups of type $B_n$ and …
We define an excedance number for the multi-colored permutation group, i.e. the wreath product of Z_{r_1} x ... x Z_{r_k} with S_n, and calculate its multi-distribution with some natural parameters. We also compute the multi-distribution of the parameters exc(pi) and fix(pi) over the sets of involutions in the multi-colored permutation group. Using this, we count the number of involutions in this group having a fixed number of excedances and absolute fixed points.
Recently, Bagno, Garber and Mansour studied a kind of excedance number on the complex reflection groups and computed its multidistribution with the number of fixed points on the set of involutions in these groups. In this note, we consider the similar problems in more general cases and make a correction of one result obtained by them.
Centrosymmetric involutions in the symmetric group S_{2n} are permutations πsuch that π=π^{-1} and π(i)+π(2n+1-i)=2n+1 for all i, and they are in bijection with involutions of the hyperoctahedral group. We describe the distribution of some natural descent statistics on 321-avoiding centrosymmetric involutions, including the number of descents in the first half of the involution, and the sum of the positions of these descents. Our results are based on two new bijections, one between centrosymmetric involutions in S_{2n} and subsets of {1,...,n}, and another one showing that certain statistics o…
The subject of pattern avoiding permutations has its roots in computer science, namely in the problem of sorting a permutation through a stack. A formula for the number of permutations of length n that can be sorted by passing it twice through a stack (where the letters on the stack have to be in increasing order) was conjectured by West, and later proved by Zeilberger. Goulden and West found a bijection from such permutations to nonseparable planar maps, and later, Jacquard and Schaeffer presented a bijection from these planar maps to certain labeled plane trees, called beta(1,0)-trees. Using…
Selecting N random points in a unit square corresponds to selecting a random permutation. By putting 5 types of symmetry restrictions on the points, we obtain subsets of permutations : involutions, signed permutations and signed involutions. We are interested in the statistics of the length of the longest up/right path of random points selections in each symmetry type as the number of points increases to infinity. The limiting distribution functions are expressed in terms of Painlevé II equation. Some of them are Tracy-Widom distributions in random matrix theory, while there are two new classe…
In [GM] Guibert and Mansour studied involutions on n letters avoiding (or containing exactly once) 132 and avoiding (or containing exactly once) an arbitrary pattern on k letters. They also established a bijection between 132-avoiding involutions and Dyck word prefixes of same length. Extending this bijection to bilateral words allows to determine more parameters; in particular, we consider the number of inversions and rises of the involutions onto the words. This is the starting point for considering two different directions: even/odd involutions and statistics of some generalized patterns. T…
We provide a combinatorial approach to the largest power of $p$ in the number of permutations $π$ with $π^p=1$, for a fixed prime number $p$. With this approach, we find the largest power of $2$ in the number of involutions, in the signed sum of involutions and in the numbers of even or odd involutions.
We establish a combinatorial connection between the sequence $(i_{n,k})$ counting the involutions on $n$ letters with $k$ descents and the sequence $(a_{n,k})$ enumerating the semistandard Young tableaux on $n$ cells with $k$ symbols. This allows us to show that the sequences $(i_{n,k})$ are not log-concave for some values of $n$, hence answering a conjecture due to F. Brenti.
A symmetry of $(t,q)$-Eulerian numbers of type $B$ is combinatorially proved by defining an involution preserving many important statistics on the set of permutation tableaux of type $B$. This involution also proves a symmetry of the generating polynomial $\hat{D}_{n, k}(p,q,r)$ of number of crossings and alignments, and hence $q$-Eulerian numbers of type $A$ defined by L. Williams. By considering a restriction of our bijection, we were led to define a new statistic on the permutations of type $D$ and $(t,q)$-Eulerian numbers of type $D$, which is proved to have a nice symmetry as well. We con…
We prove several general formulas for the distributions of various permutation statistics over any set of permutations whose quasisymmetric generating function is a symmetric function. Our formulas involve certain kinds of plethystic substitutions on quasisymmetric generating functions, and the permutation statistics we consider include the descent number, peak number, left peak number, and the number of up-down runs. We apply these results to cyclic permutations, involutions, and derangements, and more generally, to derive formulas for counting all permutations by the above statistics jointly…
We study relationships between permutation statistics and pattern-functions, counting the number of times particular patterns occur in a permutation. This allows us to write several familiar statistics as linear combinations of pattern counts, both in terms of a permutation and in terms of its image under the fundamental bijection. We use these enumerations to resolve the question of characterizing so-called "shallow" permutations, whose depth (equivalently, disarray/displacement) is minimal with respect to length and reflection length. We present this characterization in several ways, includi…
We present an involution on set partitions that interchanges two statistics related to relative size of block entries and use it to establish an equidistribution on objects counted by the Bessel numbers.
Permutation statistics $\wnm$ and $\rlm$ are both arising from permutation tableaux. $\wnm$ was introduced by Chen and Zhou, which was proved equally distributed with the number of unrestricted rows of a permutation tableau. While $\rlm$ is showed by Nadeau equally distributed with the number of $1$'s in the first row of a permutation tableau. In this paper, we investigate the joint distribution of $\wnm$ and $\rlm$. Statistic $(\rlm,\wnm,\rlmin,\des,(\underline{321}))$ is shown equally distributed with $(\rlm,\rlmin,\wnm,\des,(\underline{321}))$ on $S_n$. Then the generating function of $(\rl…
We describe an involution on Tamari intervals and m-Tamari intervals. This involution switches two sets of statistics known as the "rises" and the "contacts" and so proves an open conjecture from Préville-Ratelle on intervals of the m-Tamari lattice.
Several combinatorial actions of the affine Weyl group of type $\widetilde{C}_{n}$ on triangulations, trees, words and permutations are compared. Addressing a question of David Vogan, we show that, modulo a natural involution, these permutation representations are multiplicity-free. The proof uses a general construction of Gelfand subgroups in the affine Weyl groups of types $\widetilde{C}_{n}$ and $\widetilde{B}_n$.
We consider the involutions known as "toggles," which have been used to give simplified proofs of the fundamental properties of the promotion and evacuation maps. We transfer these involutions so that they generate a group $\mathscr P_n$ that acts on the set $S_n$ of permutations of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$. After characterizing its orbits in terms of permutation skeletons, we apply the action in order to understand West's stack-sorting map. We obtain a very simple proof of a result that clarifies and extensively generalizes a theorem of Bouvel and Guibert and also generalizes a theorem of Bousquet-Mé…
We present an easily defined countable family of permutations of the natural numbers for which explicit rearrangements (i.e., the sums induced by the permutations) can be computed. The digamma function proves to be the key tool for the computations found here for the alternating harmonic series. The permutations $ϕ$ under consideration are simple in a sense: they are involutions ($ϕ\circϕ$ is the identity function). We show that the countable set of rearrangements obtained from the simple involutions considered below are dense in the reals.
An involution in a Coxeter group has an associated set of involution words, a variation on reduced words. These words are saturated chains in a partial order first considered by Richardson and Springer in their study of symmetric varieties. In the symmetric group, involution words can be enumerated in terms of tableaux using appropriate analogues of the symmetric functions introduced by Stanley to accomplish the same task for reduced words. We adapt this approach to the group of signed permutations. We show that involution words for the longest element in the Coxeter group $C_n$ are in bijecti…
The $\textit{Edelman-Greene statistic}$ of S. Billey-B. Pawlowski measures the "shortness" of the Schur expansion of a Stanley symmetric function. We show that the maximum value of this statistic on permutations of Coxeter length $n$ is the number of involutions in the symmetric group $S_n$, and explicitly describe the permutations that attain this maximum. Our proof confirms a recent conjecture of C. Monical, B. Pankow, and A. Yong: we give an explicit combinatorial injection between a certain collections of Edelman-Greene tableaux and standard Young tableaux.
The involution walk is the random walk on $S_n$ generated by involutions with a binomially distributed with parameter $1-p$ number of $2$-cycles. This is a parallelization of the transposition walk. The involution walk is shown in this paper to mix for $\frac{1}{2} \leq p \leq 1$ fixed, $n$ sufficiently large in between $\log_{1/p}(n)$ steps and $\log_{2/(1+p)}(n)$ steps. The paper introduces a new technique for finding eigenvalues of random walks on the symmetric group generated by many conjugacy classes using the character polynomial for the characters of the representations of the symmetric…
