Let I_{n,k} (resp. J_{n,k}) be the number of involutions (resp. fixed-point free involutions) of {1,...,n} with k descents. Motivated by Brenti's conjecture which states that the sequence I_{n,0}, I_{n,1},..., I_{n,n-1} is log-concave, we prove that the two sequences I_{n,k} and J_{2n,k} are unimodal in k, for all n. Furthermore, we conjecture that there are nonnegative integers a_{n,k} such that $$ \sum_{k=0}^{n-1}I_{n,k}t^k=\sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor (n-1)/2\rfloor}a_{n,k}t^{k}(1+t)^{n-2k-1}. $$ This statement is stronger than the unimodality of I_{n,k} but is also interesting in its own right.
We prove two conjectures of Shareshian and Wachs about Eulerian quasisymmetric functions and polynomials. The first states that the cycle type Eulerian quasisymmetric function $Q_{λ,j}$ is Schur-positive, and moreover that the sequence $Q_{λ,j}$ as $j$ varies is Schur-unimodal. The second conjecture, which we prove using the first, states that the cycle type $(q,p)$-Eulerian polynomial \newline $A_λ^{\maj,\des,\exc}(q,p,q^{-1}t)$ is $t$-unimodal.
We define an analogue of signed Eulerian numbers $f_{n,k}$ for involutions of the symmetric group and derive some combinatorial properties of this sequence. In particular, we exhibit both an explicit formula and a recurrence for $f_{n,k}$ arising from the properties of its generating function.
We present an extensive study of the Eulerian distribution on the set of self evacuated involutions, namely, involutions corresponding to standard Young tableaux that are fixed under the Sch$\ddot{\textrm{u}}$tzenberger map. We find some combinatorial properties for the generating polynomial of such distribution, together with an explicit formula for its coefficients. Afterwards, we carry out an analogous study for the subset of self evacuated involutions without fixed points.
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 …
This paper was motivated by a conjecture of Brändén (European J. Combin. \textbf{29} (2008), no.~2, 514--531) about the divisibility of the coefficients in an expansion of generalized Eulerian polynomials, which implies the symmetric and unimodal property of the Eulerian numbers. We show that such a formula with the conjectured property can be derived from the combinatorial theory of continued fractions. We also discuss an analogous expansion for the corresponding formula for derangements and prove a $(p,q)$-analogue of the fact that the (-1)-evaluation of the enumerator polynomials of permuta…
We consider several generalizations of the classical $γ$-positivity of Eulerian polynomials (and their derangement analogues) using generating functions and combinatorial theory of continued fractions. For the symmetric group, we prove an expansion formula for inversions and excedances as well as a similar expansion for derangements. We also prove the $γ$-positivity for Eulerian polynomials for derangements of type $B$. More general expansion formulae are also given for Eulerian polynomials for $r$-colored derangements. Our results answer and generalize several recent open problems in the lite…
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…
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 fu…
Recently, Nunge studied Eulerian polynomials on segmented permutations, namely \emph{generalized Eulerian polynomials}, and further asked whether their coefficients form unimodal sequences. In this paper, we prove the stability of the generalized Eulerian polynomials and hence confirm Nunge's conjecture. Our proof is based on Brändén's stable multivariate Eulerian polynomials. By acting on Brändén's polynomials with a stability-preserving linear operator, we get a multivariate refinement of the generalized Eulerian polynomials. To prove Nunge's conjecture, we also develop a general approach to…
For a poset whose Hasse diagram is a rooted plane forest $F$, we consider the corresponding tree descent polynomial $A_F(q)$, which is a generating function of the number of descents of the labelings of $F$. When the forest is a path, $A_F(q)$ specializes to the classical Eulerian polynomial. We prove that the coefficient sequence of $A_F(q)$ is unimodal and that if $\{T_{n}\}$ is a sequence of trees with $|T_{n}| = n$ and maximal down degree $D_{n} = O(n^{0.5-ε})$ then the number of descents in a labeling of $T_{n}$ is asymptotically normal.
Remixed Eulerian numbers are a polynomial $q$-deformation of Postnikov's mixed Eulerian numbers. They arose naturally in previous work by the authors concerning the permutahedral variety and subsume well-known families of polynomials such as $q$-binomial coefficients and Garsia--Remmel's $q$-hit numbers. We study their combinatorics in more depth. As polynomials in $q$, they are shown to be symmetric and unimodal. By interpreting them as computing success probabilities in a simple probabilistic process we arrive at a combinatorial interpretation involving weighted trees. By decomposing the per…
This paper develops methods to study the distribution of Eulerian statistics defined by second-order recurrence relations. We define a random process to decompose the statistics over compositions of integers. It is shown that the numbers of descents in random involutions and in random derangements are asymptotically normal with rates of convergence $\mathcal{O}(n^{-1/2})$ and $\mathcal{O}(n^{-1/3})$ respectively.
We introduce a family of quasisymmetric functions called {\em Eulerian quasisymmetric functions}, which have the property of specializing to enumerators for the joint distribution of the permutation statistics, major index and excedance number on permutations of fixed cycle type. This family is analogous to a family of quasisymmetric functions that Gessel and Reutenauer used to study the joint distribution of major index and descent number on permutations of fixed cycle type. Our central result is a formula for the generating function for the Eulerian quasisymmetric functions, which specialize…
We introduce a family of quasisymmetric functions called {\em Eulerian quasisymmetric functions}, which specialize to enumerators for the joint distribution of the permutation statistics, major index and excedance number on permutations of fixed cycle type. This family is analogous to a family of quasisymmetric functions that Gessel and Reutenauer used to study the joint distribution of major index and descent number on permutations of fixed cycle type. Our central result is a formula for the generating function for the Eulerian quasisymmetric functions, which specializes to a new and surprisi…
Given a permutation $π$ chosen uniformly from $S_n$, we explore the joint distribution of $π(1)$ and the number of descents in $π$. We obtain a formula for the number of permutations with $\des(π)=d$ and $π(1)=k$, and use it to show that if $\des(π)$ is fixed at $d$, then the expected value of $π(1)$ is $d+1$. We go on to derive generating functions for the joint distribution, show that it is unimodal if viewed correctly, and show that when $d$ is small the distribution of $π(1)$ among the permutations with $d$ descents is approximately geometric. Applications to Stein's method and the Neggers…
It follows from work of Chung and Graham that for a certain family of polynomials $T_{n}(x)$, derived from the descent statistic on permutations, the coefficient sequence of $T_{n-1}(x)$ coincides with that of the polynomial $T_{n}(x)/\left(1+x+\cdots+x^{n-1}\right)$. We observed computationally that the inflated $\mathbf{s}$-Eulerian polynomial $Q_{n}^{(\mathbf{s})}(x)$, which satisfies $Q_{n}^{(\mathbf{s})}(x) = T_{n}(x)$ when $\mathbf{s}=(1,2,\ldots,n)$, also satisfies this property for many sequences $\mathbf{s}$. In this work we characterize those sequences $\mathbf{s}$ for which the coef…
We define a new family of generalized Stirling permutations that can be interpreted in terms of ordered trees and forests. We prove that the number of generalized Stirling permutations with a fixed number of ascents is given by a natural three-parameter generalization of the well-known Eulerian numbers. We give the generating function for this new class of numbers and, in the simplest cases, we find closed formulas for them and the corresponding row polynomials. By using a non-trivial involution our generalized Eulerian numbers can be mapped onto a family of generalized Ward numbers, forming a…
In this Ph.D. dissertation (2018, Emory University) we prove theorems at the intersection of the additive and multiplicative branches of number theory, bringing together ideas from partition theory, $q$-series, algebra, modular forms and analytic number theory. We present a natural multiplicative theory of integer partitions (which are usually considered in terms of addition), and explore new classes of partition-theoretic zeta functions and Dirichlet series -- as well as "Eulerian" $q$-hypergeometric series -- enjoying many interesting relations. We find a number of theorems of classical numb…
