Certain mathematical structures make a habit of reoccuring in the most diverse list of settings. Some obvious examples exhibiting this intrusive type of behavior include the Fibonacci numbers, the Catalan numbers, the quaternions, and the modular group. In this article, the focus is on a lesser known example: the noncrossing partition lattice. The focus of the article is a gentle introduction to the lattice itself in three of its many guises: as a way to encode parking functions, as a key part of the foundations of noncommutative probability, and as a building block for a contractible space acted on by a braid group. Since this article is aimed primarily at nonspecialists, each area is briefly introduced along the way.
We prove an instance of the cyclic sieving phenomenon, occurring in the context of noncrossing parititions for well-generated complex reflection groups.
We give a case-free proof that the lattice of noncrossing partitions associated to any finite real reflection group is EL-shellable. Shellability of these lattices was open for the groups of type $D_n$ and those of exceptional type and rank at least three.
We give a criterion for Bruhat order on noncrossing partitions corresponding to the Coxeter element $c=s_1 s_2\cdots s_n$. Using it we prove that the Bruhat order endows noncrossing partitions with a lattice structure. We then explain what happens if we change the Coxeter element; in that case the lattice property fails and we explain which order to consider to get the same lattice structure as for the Coxeter element $c$. In particular we get bijections between noncrossing partitions associated to distinct Coxeter elements, which fix the set of reflections.
The purpose of this note is to complete the study, begun in the first author's PhD thesis, of the topology of the poset of generalized noncrossing partitions associated to real reflection groups. In particular, we calculate the Euler characteristic of this poset with the maximal and minimal elements deleted. As we show, the result on the Euler characteristic extends to generalized noncrossing partitions associated to well-generated complex reflection groups.
We prove that the restriction of Bruhat order to noncrossing partitions in type $A_n$ for the Coxeter element $c=s_1s_2 ...s_n$ forms a distributive lattice isomorphic to the order ideals of the root poset ordered by inclusion. Motivated by the change-of-basis from the graphical basis of the Temperley-Lieb algebra to the image of the simple elements of the dual braid monoid, we extend this bijection to other Coxeter elements using certain canonical factorizations. In particular, we give new bijections---fixing the set of reflections---between noncrossing partitions associated to distinct Coxet…
We give an elementary, case-free, Coxeter-theoretic derivation of the formula $h^nn!/|W|$ for the number of maximal chains in the noncrossing partition lattice $NC(W)$ of a real reflection group $W$. Our proof proceeds by comparing the Deligne-Reading recursion with a parabolic recursion for the characteristic polynomial of the $W$-Laplacian matrix considered in our previous work. We further discuss the consequences of this formula for the geometric group theory of spherical and affine Artin groups.
Using the bijection between partitions and vacillating tableaux, we establish a correspondence between pairs of noncrossing free Dyck paths of length $2n$ and noncrossing partitions of $[2n+1]$ with $n+1$ blocks. In terms of the number of up steps at odd positions, we find a characterization of Dyck paths constructed from pairs of noncrossing free Dyck paths by using the Labelle merging algorithm.
In this paper, we introduce polynomial time algorithms that generate random $k$-noncrossing partitions and 2-regular, $k$-noncrossing partitions with uniform probability. A $k$-noncrossing partition does not contain any $k$ mutually crossing arcs in its canonical representation and is 2-regular if the latter does not contain arcs of the form $(i,i+1)$. Using a bijection of Chen {\it et al.} \cite{Chen,Reidys:08tan}, we interpret $k$-noncrossing partitions and 2-regular, $k$-noncrossing partitions as restricted generalized vacillating tableaux. Furthermore, we interpret the tableaux as sampling…
We find bijections on 2-distant noncrossing partitions, 12312-avoiding partitions, 3-Motzkin paths, UH-free Schr{ö}der paths and Schr{ö}der paths without peaks at even height. We also give a direct bijection between 2-distant noncrossing partitions and 12312-avoiding partitions.
There are two natural simplicial complexes associated to the noncrossing partition lattice: the order complex of the full lattice and the order complex of the lattice with its bounding elements removed. The latter is a complex that we call the noncrossing partition link because it is the link of an edge in the former. The first author and his coauthors conjectured that various collections of simplices of the noncrossing partition link (determined by the undesired parking spaces in the corresponding parking functions) form contractible subcomplexes. In this article we prove their conjecture by …
We interpret noncrossing partitions of type $B$ and type $D$ in terms of noncrossing partitions of type $A$. As an application, we get type-preserving bijections between noncrossing and nonnesting partitions of type $B$, type $C$ and type $D$ which are different from those in the recent work of Fink and Giraldo. We also define Catalan tableaux of type $B$ and type $D$, and find bijections between them and noncrossing partitions of type $B$ and type $D$ respectively.
A set partition is said to be $(k,d)$-noncrossing if it avoids the pattern $12... k12... d$. We find an explicit formula for the ordinary generating function of the number of $(k,d)$-noncrossing partitions of $\{1,2,...,n\}$ when $d=1,2$.
We present an elementary type preserving bijection between noncrossing and nonnesting partitions for all classical reflection groups, answering a question of Athanasiadis.
In this paper, we present a reduction algorithm which transforms $m$-regular partitions of $[n]=\{1, 2, ..., n\}$ to $(m-1)$-regular partitions of $[n-1]$. We show that this algorithm preserves the noncrossing property. This yields a simple explanation of an identity due to Simion-Ullman and Klazar in connection with enumeration problems on noncrossing partitions and RNA secondary structures. For ordinary noncrossing partitions, the reduction algorithm leads to a representation of noncrossing partitions in terms of independent arcs and loops, as well as an identity of Simion and Ullman which e…
Partitions of [n]={1,2,...,n} into sets of lists are counted by sequence number A000262 in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. They are somewhat less numerous than partitions of [n] into lists of sets, A000670. Here we observe that the former are actually equinumerous with partitions of [n] into lists of *noncrossing* sets and give a bijective proof. We show that partitions of [n] into sets of noncrossing lists are counted by A088368 and generalize this result to introduce a transform on integer sequences that we dub the "noncrossing partition" transform. We also derive recurrence r…
We present an explicit bijection between noncrossing and nonnesting partitions of Coxeter systems of type D which preserves openers, closers and transients.
Schutzenberger's theorem for the ordinary RSK correspondence naturally extends to Chen et. al's correspondence for matchings and partitions. Thus the counting of bilaterally symmetric $k$-noncrossing partitions naturally arises as an analogue for involutions. In obtaining the analogous result for 3-noncrossing partitions, we use a different technique to develop a Maple package for 2-dimensional vacillating lattice walk enumeration problems. The package also applies to the hesitating case. As applications, we find several interesting relations for some special bilaterally symmetric partitions.
We situate the noncrossing partitions associated to a finite Coxeter group within the context of the representation theory of quivers. We describe Reading's bijection between noncrossing partitions and clusters in this context, and show that it extends to the extended Dynkin case. Our setup also yields a new proof that the noncrossing partitions associated to a finite Coxeter group form a lattice. We also prove some new results within the theory of quiver representations. We show that the finitely generated, exact abelian, and extension-closed subcategories of the representations of a quiver $…
We introduce and study a new action of the symmetric group $\mathfrak{S}_n$ on the vector space spanned by noncrossing partitions of $\{1, 2, \dots, n\}$ in which the adjacent transpositions $(i, i+1) \in \mathfrak{S}_n$ act on noncrossing partitions by means of skein relations. We characterize the isomorphism type of the resulting module and use it to obtain new representation theoretic proofs of cyclic sieving results due to Reiner-Stanton-White and Pechenik for the action of rotation on various classes of noncrossing partitions and the action of K-promotion on two-row rectangular increasing…
In this paper we will give a Möbius number of $NC^{k}(W) \setminus \bf{mins} \cup \{\hat{0} \}$ for a Coxeter group $W$ which contains an affirmative answer for the conjecture 3.7.9 in Armstrong's paper [ Generalized noncrossing partitions and combinatorics of Coxeter groups. arXiv:math/0611106].
In this paper, we introduce polynomial time algorithms that generate random 3-noncrossing partitions and 2-regular, 3-noncrossing partitions with uniform probability. A 3-noncrossing partition does not contain any three mutually crossing arcs in its canonical representation and is 2-regular if the latter does not contain arcs of the form $(i,i+1)$. Using a bijection of Chen {\it et al.} \cite{Chen,Reidys:08tan}, we interpret 3-noncrossing partitions and 2-regular, 3-noncrossing partitions as restricted generalized vacillating tableaux. Furthermore, we interpret the tableaux as sampling paths o…
We prove a conjecture due independently to Yan and Martinez--Savage that asserts inversion sequences with no weakly decreasing subsequence of length $3$ and enhanced $3$-noncrossing partitions have the same cardinality. Our approach applies both the generating tree technique and the so-called obstinate kernel method developed by Bousquet-Mélou. One application of this equinumerosity is a discovery of an intriguing identity involving numbers of classical and enhanced $3$-noncrossing partitions.
This paper introduces a new and simple statistic on noncrossing partitions that expresses each coordinate of the toric $h$-vector of a cubical complex, written in the basis of the Adin $h$-vector entries, as the total weight of all noncrossing partitions. The same model may also be used to obtain a very simple combinatorial interpretation of the contribution of a cubical shelling component to the toric $h$-vector. In this model, a strengthening of the symmetry expressed by the Dehn-Sommerville equations may be derived from the self-duality of the noncrossing partition lattice, exhibited by the…
We develop the relationship between minimal transitive star factorizations and noncrossing partitions. This gives a new combinatorial proof of a result by Irving and Rattan, and a specialization of a result of Kreweras. It also arises in a poset on the symmetric group whose definition is motivated by the Subword Property of the Bruhat order.
We give combinatorial proofs of the formulas for the number of multichains in the $k$-divisible noncrossing partitions of classical types with certain conditions on the rank and the block size due to Krattenthaler and M{ü}ller. We also prove Armstrong's conjecture on the zeta polynomial of the poset of $k$-divisible noncrossing partitions of type $A$ invariant under a $180^\circ$ rotation in the cyclic representation.
We introduce a new pair of mutually dual bases of noncommutative symmetric functions and quasi-symmetric functions, and use it to derive generalizations of several results on the reduced incidence algebra of the lattice of noncrossing partitions. As a consequence, we obtain a quasi-symmetric version of the Farahat-Higman algebra.
In this paper we prove a duality between $k$-noncrossing partitions over $[n]=\{1,...,n\}$ and $k$-noncrossing braids over $[n-1]$. This duality is derived directly via (generalized) vacillating tableaux which are in correspondence to tangled-diagrams \cite{Reidys:07vac}. We give a combinatorial interpretation of the bijection in terms of the contraction of arcs of tangled-diagrams. Furthermore it induces by restriction a bijection between $k$-noncrossing, 2-regular partitions over $[n]$ and $k$-noncrossing braids without isolated points over $[n-1]$. Since braids without isolated points corre…
This memoir constitutes the author's PhD thesis at Cornell University. It serves both as an expository work and as a description of new research. At the heart of the memoir, we introduce and study a poset $NC^{(k)}(W)$ for each finite Coxeter group $W$ and for each positive integer $k$. When $k=1$, our definition coincides with the generalized noncrossing partitions introduced by Brady-Watt and Bessis. When $W$ is the symmetric group, we obtain the poset of classical $k$-divisible noncrossing partitions, first studied by Edelman. Along the way, we include a comprehensive introduction to relate…
We give some interpretations to certain integer sequences in terms of parameters on Grand-Dyck paths and coloured noncrossing partitions, and we find some new bijections relating Grand-Dyck paths and signed pattern avoiding permutations. Next we transfer a natural distributive lattice structure on Grand-Dyck paths to coloured noncrossing partitions and signed pattern avoiding permutations, thus showing, in particular, that it is isomorphic to the structure induced by the (strong) Bruhat order on a certain set of signed pattern avoiding permutations.
The partition lattice and noncrossing partition lattice are well studied objects in combinatorics. Given a graph $G$ on vertex set $\{1,2,\dots, n\}$, its bond lattice, $L_G$, is the subposet of the partition lattice formed by restricting to the partitions whose blocks induce connected subgraphs of $G$. In this article, we introduce a natural noncrossing analogue of the bond lattice, the noncrossing bond poset, $NC_G$, obtained by restricting to the noncrossing partitions of $L_G$. Both the noncrossing partition lattice and the bond lattice have many nice combinatorial properties. We show that…
We consider noncrossing partitions of [n] under the action of (i) the reflection group (of order 2), (ii) the rotation group (cyclic of order n) and (iii) the rotation/reflection group (dihedral of order 2n). First, we exhibit a bijection from rotation classes to bicolored plane trees on n edges, and consider its implications. Then we count noncrossing partitions of [n] invariant under reflection and show that, somewhat surprisingly, they are equinumerous with rotation classes invariant under reflection. The proof uses a pretty involution originating in work of Germain Kreweras. We conjecture …
For each skew shape we define a nonhomogeneous symmetric function, generalizing a construction of Pak and Postnikov. In two special cases, we show that the coefficients of this function when expanded in the complete homogeneous basis are given in terms of the (reduced) type of $k$-divisible noncrossing partitions. Our work extends Haiman's notion of a parking function symmetric function.
Motivated by recent work on mixtures of classical and free probabilities, we introduce and study the notion of $ε$-noncrossing partitions. It is shown that the set of such partitions forms a lattice, which interpolates as a poset between the poset of partitions and the one of noncrossing partitions. Moreover, $ε$-cumulants are introduced and shown to characterize the notion of $ε$-independence.
We introduce two order relations on finite Coxeter groups which refine the absolute and the Bruhat order, and establish some of their main properties. In particular we study the restriction of these orders to noncrossing partitions and show that the intervals for these orders can be enumerated in terms of the cluster complex. The properties of our orders permit to revisit several results in Coxeter combinatorics, such as the Chapoton triangles and how they are related, the enumeration of reflections with full support, the bijections between clusters and noncrossing partitions.
Noncrossing linked partitions arise in the study of certain transforms in free probability theory. We explore the connection between noncrossing linked partitions and colored Motzkin paths. A (3,2)-Motzkin path can be viewed as a colored Motzkin path in the sense that there are three types of level steps and two types of down steps. A large (3,2)-Motzkin path is defined to be a (3,2)-Motzkin path for which there are only two types of level steps on the x-axis. We establish a one-to-one correspondence between the set of noncrossing linked partitions of [n+1] and the set of large (3,2)-Motzkin p…
For coprime positive integers $a<b$, Armstrong, Rhoades, and Williams (2013) defined a set $NC(a,b)$ of rational noncrossing partitions, a subset of the ordinary noncrossing partitions of $\{1, \ldots, b-1\}$. Bodnar and Rhoades (2015) confirmed their conjecture that $NC(a,b)$ is closed under rotation and proved an instance of the cyclic sieving phenomenon for this rotation action. We give a definition of $NC(a,b)$ which works for all coprime $a$ and $b$ and prove closure under rotation and cyclic sieving in this more general setting. We also generalize noncrossing parking functions to all cop…
We prove a conjecture of Drake and Kim: the number of $2$-distant noncrossing partitions of $\{1,2,...,n\}$ is equal to the sum of weights of Motzkin paths of length $n$, where the weight of a Motzkin path is a product of certain fractions involving Fibonacci numbers. We provide two proofs of their conjecture: one uses continued fractions and the other is combinatorial.
For a fixed integer $k$, we consider the set of noncrossing partitions, where both the block sizes and the difference between adjacent elements in a block is $1\bmod k$. We show that these $k$-indivisible noncrossing partitions can be recovered in the setting of subgroups of the symmetric group generated by $(k+1)$-cycles, and that the poset of $k$-indivisible noncrossing partitions under refinement order has many beautiful enumerative and structural properties. We encounter $k$-parking functions and some special Cambrian lattices on the way, and show that a special class of lattice paths cons…
We prove that the noncrossing partition lattices associated with the complex reflection groups $G(d,d,n)$ for $d,n\geq 2$ admit symmetric decompositions into Boolean subposets. As a result, these lattices have the strong Sperner property and their rank-generating polynomials are symmetric, unimodal, and $γ$-nonnegative. We use computer computations to complete the proof that every noncrossing partition lattice associated with a well-generated complex reflection group is strongly Sperner, thus answering affirmatively a question raised by D. Armstrong.
For any positive integers $a$ and $b$, we enumerate all colored partitions made by noncrossing diagonals of a convex polygon into polygons whose number of sides is congruent to $b$ modulo $a$. For the number of such partitions made by a fixed number of diagonals, we give both a recurrence relation and an explicit representation in terms of partial Bell polynomials. We use basic properties of these polynomials to efficiently incorporate restrictions on the type of polygons allowed in the partitions.
In 2007, D.I. Panyushev defined a remarkable map on the set of nonnesting partitions (antichains in the root poset of a finite Weyl group). In this paper we identify Panyushev's map with the Kreweras complement on the set of noncrossing partitions, and hence construct the first uniform bijection between nonnesting and noncrossing partitions. Unfortunately, the proof that our construction is well-defined is case-by-case, using a computer in the exceptional types. Fortunately, the proof involves new and interesting combinatorics in the classical types. As consequences, we prove several conjectur…
Based on weighted noncrossing partitions of type B, we obtain type B analogues of Coker's identities on the Narayana polynomials. A parity reversing involution is given for the alternating sum of Narayana numbers of type B. Moreover, we find type B analogues of the refinements of Coker's identities due to Chen, Deutsch and Elizalde. By combinatorial constructions, we provide type B analogues of three identities of Mansour and Sun also on the Narayana polynomials.
The total number of noncrossing partitions of type $Ψ$ is the $n$th Catalan number $\frac{1}{n+1}\binom{2n}{n}$ when $Ψ=A_{n-1}$, and the binomial $\binom{2n}{n}$ when $Ψ=B_n$, and these numbers coincide with the correspondent number of nonnesting partitions. For type A, there are several bijective proofs of this equality, being the intuitive map that locally converts each crossing to a nesting one of them. In this paper we present a bijection between nonnesting and noncrossing partitions of types A and B that generalizes the type A bijection that locally converts each crossing to a nesting.
We introduce a new basis of the Temperley-Lieb algebra. It is defined using a bijection between noncrossing partitions and fully commutative elements together with a basis introduced by Zinno, which is obtained by mapping the simple elements of the Birman-Ko-Lee braid monoid to the Temperley-Lieb algebra. The combinatorics of the new basis involve the Bruhat order restricted to noncrossing partitions. As an application we can derive properties of the coefficients of the base change matrix between Zinno's basis and the well-known diagram or Kazhdan-Lusztig basis of the Temperley-Lieb algebra. I…
Consider the noncrossing set partitions of an $n$-element set which either do not contain the block $\{n-1,n\}$, or which do not contain the singleton block $\{n\}$ whenever $1$ and $n-1$ are in the same block. In this article we study the subposet of the noncrossing partition lattice induced by these elements, and show that it is a supersolvable lattice, and therefore lexicographically shellable. We give a combinatorial model for the NBB bases of this lattice and derive an explicit formula for the value of its Möbius function between least and greatest element. This work is motivated by a rec…
