We characterise the permutations pi such that the elements in the closed lower Bruhat interval [id,pi] of the symmetric group correspond to non-taking rook configurations on a skew Ferrers board. It turns out that these are exactly the permutations pi such that [id,pi] corresponds to a flag manifold defined by inclusions, studied by Gasharov and Reiner.
Our characterisation connects the Poincare polynomials (rank-generating function) of Bruhat intervals with q-rook polynomials, and we are able to compute the Poincare polynomial of some particularly interesting intervals in the finite Weyl groups A_n and B_n. The expressions involve q-Stirling numbers of the second kind.
As a by-product of our method, we present a new Stirling number identity connected to both Bruhat intervals and the poly-Bernoulli numbers defined by Kaneko.
A natural construction due to K. Ding yields Schubert varieties from Ferrers boards. The poset structure of the Schubert cells in these varieties is equal to the poset of maximal rook placements on the Ferrers board under the Bruhat order. We determine when two Ferrers boards have isomorphic rook posets. Equivalently, we give an exact categorization of when two Ding Schubert varieties have identical Schubert cell structures. This also produces a complete classification of isomorphism types of lower intervals of 312-avoiding permutations in the Bruhat order.
In [2] we introduced a new notion of Wilf equivalence of integer partitions and proved that rook equivalence implies Wilf equivalence. In the present paper we prove the converse and thereby establish a new criterion for rook equivalence. We also refine two of the standard criteria for rook equivalence and establish another new one involving what we call \emph{nested sequences of L's}.
Rook polynomials have been studied extensively since 1946, principally as a method for enumerating restricted permutations. However, they have also been shown to have many fruitful connections with other areas of mathematics, including graph theory, hypergeometric series, and algebraic geometry. It is known that the rook polynomial of any board can be computed recursively. The naturally arising inverse question -- given a polynomial, what board (if any) is associated with it? -- remains open. In this paper, we solve the inverse problem completely for the class of Ferrers boards, and show that …
The rook monoid $R_n$ is the finite monoid whose elements are the 0-1 matrices with at most one nonzero entry in each row and column. The group of invertible elements of $R_n$ is isomorphic to the symmetric group $S_n$. The natural extension to $R_n$ of the Bruhat-Chevalley ordering on the symmetric group is defined in \cite{Renner86}. In this paper, we find an efficient, combinatorial description of the Bruhat-Chevalley ordering on $R_n$. We also give a useful, combinatorial formula for the length function on $R_n$.
We prove that the Bruhat-Chevalley-Renner order on the rook monoid is EL-shellable. We determine the homeomorphism type of the associated order complex.
Goldman, Joichi, and White proved a beautiful theorem showing that the falling factorial generating function for the rook numbers of a Ferrers board factors over the integers. Briggs and Remmel studied an analogue of rook placements where rows are replaced by sets of $m$ rows called levels. They proved a version of the factorization theorem in that setting, but only for certain Ferrers boards. We generalize this result to any Ferrers board as well as giving a p,q-analogue. We also consider a dual situation involving weighted file placements which permit more than one rook in the same row. In b…
Suppose the rows of a board are partitioned into sets of m rows called levels. An m-level rook placement is a subset of the board where no two squares are in the same column or the same level. We construct explicit bijections to prove three theorems about such placements. We start with two bijections between Ferrers boards having the same number of m-level rook placements. The first generalizes a map by Foata and Sch\"utzenberger and our proof applies to any Ferrers board. This bijection also preserves the m-inversion number statistic of an m-level rook placement, defined by Briggs and Remmel…
Two boards are rook equivalent if they have the same number of non-attacking rook placements for any number of rooks. Define a rook equivalence graph of an equivalence set of Ferrers boards by specifying that two boards are connected by an edge if you can obtain one of the boards by moving squares in the other board out of one column and into a singe other column. Given such a graph, we categorize which boards will yield connected graphs. We also provide some cases where common graphs will or will not be the graph for some set of rook equivalent Ferrers boards. Finally, we extend this graph de…
K. Ding studied a class of Schubert varieties X_λin type A partial flag manifolds, corresponding to integer partitions λand in bijection with dominant permutations. He observed that the Schubert cell structure of X_λis indexed by maximal rook placements on the Ferrers board B_λ, and that the integral cohomology groups H^*(X_λ; Zz), H^*(X_μ; Zz) are additively isomorphic exactly when the Ferrers boards B_λ, B_μsatisfy the combinatorial condition of rook-equivalence. We classify the varieties X_λup to isomorphism, distinguishing them by their graded cohomology rings with integer coefficients. Th…
We study the simplicial complex that arises from non-attacking rook placements on a subclass of Ferrers boards that have $a_i$ rows of length $i$ where $a_i>0$ and $i\leq n$ for some positive integer $n$. In particular, we will investigate enumerative properties of their facets, their homotopy type, and homology.
In 2009, Etzion and Siberstein proposed a conjecture on the largest dimension of a linear space of matrices over a finite field in which all nonzero matrices are supported on a Ferrers diagram and have rank bounded below by a given integer. Although several cases of the conjecture have been established in the past decade, proving or disproving it remains to date a wide open problem. In this paper, we take a new look at the Etzion-Siberstein Conjecture, investigating its connection with rook theory. Our results show that the combinatorics behind this open problem is closely linked to the theory…
Using bijections between pattern-avoiding permutations and certain full rook placements on Ferrers boards, we give short proofs of two enumerative results. The first is a simplified enumeration of the 3124, 1234-avoiding permutations, obtained recently by Callan via a complicated decomposition. The second is a streamlined bijection between 1342-avoiding permutations and permutations which can be sorted by two increasing stacks in series, originally due to Atkinson, Murphy, and Ruškuc.
For an element $w$ in the Weyl algebra generated by $D$ and $U$ with relation $DU=UD+1$, the normally ordered form is $w=\sum c_{i,j}U^iD^j$. We demonstrate that the normal order coefficients $c_{i,j}$ of a word $w$ are rook numbers on a Ferrers board. We use this interpretation to give a new proof of the rook factorization theorem, which we use to provide an explicit formula for the coefficients $c_{i,j}$. We calculate the Weyl binomial coefficients: normal order coefficients of the element $(D+U)^n$ in the Weyl algebra. We extend all these results to the $q$-analogue of the Weyl algebra. We …
Connections between $q$-rook polynomials and matrices over finite fields are exploited to derive a new statistic for Garsia and Remmel's $q$-hit polynomial. Both this new statistic $mat$ and another statistic for the $q$-hit polynomial $ξ$ recently introduced by Dworkin are shown to induce different multiset Mahonian permutation statistics for any Ferrers board. In addition, for the triangular boards they are shown to generate different families of Euler-Mahonian statistics. For these boards the $ξ$ family includes Denert's statistic $den$, and gives a new proof of Foata and Zeilberger's Theor…
We derive a combinatorial equilibrium for bounded juggling patterns with a random, $q$-geometric throw distribution. The dynamics are analyzed via rook placements on staircase Ferrers boards, which leads to a steady-state distribution containing $q$-rook polynomial coefficients and $q$-Stirling numbers of the second kind. We show that the equilibrium probabilities of the bounded model can be uniformly approximated with the equilibrium probabilities of a corresponding unbounded model. This observation leads to new limit formulae for $q$-analogues. Keywords: juggling pattern; $q$-Stirling number…
We study the row-space partition and the pivot partition on the matrix space $\mathbb{F}_q^{n \times m}$. We show that both these partitions are reflexive and that the row-space partition is self-dual. Moreover, using various combinatorial methods, we explicitly compute the Krawtchouk coefficients associated with these partitions. This establishes MacWilliams-type identities for the row-space and pivot enumerators of linear rank-metric codes. We then generalize the Singleton-like bound for rank-metric codes, and introduce two new concepts of code extremality. Both of them generalize the notion…
Utilizing elliptic weights, we construct an elliptic analogue of rook numbers for Ferrers boards. Our elliptic rook numbers generalize Garsia and Remmel's q-rook numbers by two additional independent parameters a and b, and a nome p. These are shown to satisfy an elliptic extension of a factorization theorem which in the classical case was established by Goldman, Joichi and White and later was extended to the q-case by Garsia and Remmel. We obtain similar results for our elliptic analogues of Garsia and Remmel's q-file numbers for skyline boards. We also provide an elliptic extension of the j-…
By explicitly describing a cellular decomposition we determine the Borel invariant cycles that generate the Chow groups of the quotient of a reductive group by a Levi subgroup. For illustrations we consider the variety of polarizations $\mbf{SL}_n / \mbf{S}(\mbf{GL}_p\times \mbf{GL}_q)$, and we introduce the notion of a sect for describing its cellular decomposition. In particular, for $p=q$, we show that the Bruhat order on the sect corresponding to the dense cell is isomorphic, as a poset, to the rook monoid with the Bruhat-Chevalley-Renner order.
This paper studies the generalizations of the Stirling numbers of both kinds and the Lah numbers in association with the normal order problem in the Weyl algebra $W=\langle x,D|Dx-xD=1\rangle$. Any word $ω\in W$ with $m$ $x$'s and $n$ $D$'s can be expressed in the normally ordered form $ω=x^{m-n}\sum_{k\ge 0} {ω\brace {k}} x^{k}D^{k}$, where ${ω\brace {k}}$ is known as the Stirling number of the second kind for the word $ω$. This study considers the expansions of restricted words $ω$ in $W$ over the sequences $\{(xD)^{k}\}_{k\ge 0}$ and $\{xD^{k}x^{k-1}\}_{k\ge 0}$. Interestingly, the coeffici…
Let $B$ be the group of invertible upper-triangular complex $n\times n$ matrices, $\mathfrak{u}$ the space of upper-triangular complex matrices with zeroes on the diagonal and $\mathfrak{u}^*$ its dual space. The group $B$ acts on $\mathfrak{u}^*$ by $(g.f)(x)=f(gxg^{-1})$, $g\in B$, $f\in\mathfrak{u}^*$, $x\in\mathfrak{u}$. To each involution $σ$ in $S_n$, the symmetric group on $n$ letters, one can assign the $B$-orbit $Ω_σ\in\mathfrak{u}^*$. We present a combinatorial description of the partial order on the set of involutions induced by the orbit closures. The answer is given in terms of ro…
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 consider the problem of finding the number of matrices over a finite field with a certain rank and with support that avoids a subset of the entries. These matrices are a q-analogue of permutations with restricted positions (i.e., rook placements). For general sets of entries these numbers of matrices are not polynomials in q (Stembridge 98); however, when the set of entries is a Young diagram, the numbers, up to a power of q-1, are polynomials with nonnegative coefficients (Haglund 98). In this paper, we give a number of conditions under which these numbers are polynomials in q, or even pol…
