The study of patterns in permutations in a very active area of current research. Klazar defined and studied an analogous notion of pattern for set partitions. We continue this work, finding exact formulas for the number of set partitions which avoid certain specific patterns. In particular, we enumerate and characterize those partitions avoiding any partition of a 3-element set. This allows us to conclude that the corresponding sequences are P-recursive. Finally, we define a second notion of pattern in a set partition, based on its restricted growth function. Related results are obtained for this new definition.
A set partition avoids a pattern if no subdivision of that partition standardizes to the pattern. There exists a bijection between set partitions and restricted growth functions (RGFs) on which Wachs and White defined four statistics of interest to this work. We first characterize the restricted growth functions of several avoidance classes based on partitions of size four, enumerate these avoidance classes, and consider the distribution of the Wachs and White statistics across these avoidance classes. We also investigate the equidistribution of statistics between avoidance classes based on mu…
Klazar defined and studied a notion of pattern avoidance for set partitions, which is an analogue of pattern avoidance for permutations. Sagan considered partitions which avoid a single partition of three elements. We enumerate partitions which avoid any family of partitions of a 3-element set as was done by Simion and Schmidt for permutations. We also consider even and odd set partitions. We provide enumerative results for set partitions restricted by generalized set partition patterns, which are an analogue of the generalized permutation patterns of Babson and Steingr{\'ı}msson. Finally, in …
We consider asymptotics of set partition pattern avoidance in the sense of Klazar. Our main result derives the asymptotics of the number of set partitions avoiding a given set partition within an exponential factor, which leads to a classification of possible growth rates of set partition pattern classes. We further define a notion of permutation-tuple avoidance, which generalizes notions of Aldred et al. and the usual permutation pattern setting, and similarly determine the number of permutation-tuples avoiding a given tuple to within an exponential factor.
We consider asymptotics of set partition pattern avoidance in the sense of Klazar. One of the results of this paper extends work of Alweiss, and finds a classification for set partitions $π$ such that the number of set partitions of $[n]$ avoiding $π$ grows more slowly than $n^{cn}$ for all $c>0$. Several conjectures are proposed, and the related question of asymptotics of parallel ($k$-tuple) permutation pattern avoidance is considered and solved completely to within an exponential factor, generalizing Marcus and Tardos's 2004 proof of the Stanley-Wilf Conjecture.
To flatten a set partition (with apologies to Mathematica) means to form a permutation by erasing the dividers between its blocks. Of course, the result depends on how the blocks are listed. For the usual listing--increasing entries in each block and blocks arranged in increasing order of their first entries--we count the partitions of [n] whose flattening avoids a single 3-letter pattern. Five counting sequences arise: a null sequence, the powers of 2, the Fibonacci numbers, the Catalan numbers, and the binomial transform of the Catalan numbers.
Pattern avoidance in the symmetric group $S_n$ has provided a number of useful connections between seemingly unrelated problems from stack-sorting to Schubert varieties. Recent work has generalized these results to $S_n\wr C_c$, the objects of which can be viewed as "colored permutations". Another body of research that has grown from the study of pattern avoidance in permutations is pattern avoidance in $Π_n$, the set of set partitions of $[n]$. Pattern avoidance in set partitions is a generalization of the well-studied notion of noncrossing partitions. Motivated by recent results in pattern a…
In this paper we consider the enumeration of ordered set partitions avoiding a permutation pattern of length 2 or 3. We provide an exact enumeration for avoiding the permutation 12. We also give exact enumeration for ordered partitions with 3 blocks and ordered partitions with n-1 blocks avoiding a permutation of length 3. We use enumeration schemes to recursively enumerate 123-avoiding ordered partitions with any block sizes. Finally, we give some asymptotic results for the growth rates of the number of ordered set partitions avoiding a single pattern; including a Stanley-Wilf type that exhib…
Recently, Babson and Steingrimsson have introduced generalised permutation patterns that allow the requirement that two adjacent letters in a pattern must be adjacent in the permutation. We consider pattern avoidance for such patterns, and give a complete solution for the number of permutations avoiding any single pattern of length three with exactly one adjacent pair of letters. We also give some results for the number of permutations avoiding two different patterns. Relations are exhibited to several well studied combinatorial structures, such as set partitions, Dyck paths, Motzkin paths, an…
The notion of containment and avoidance provides a natural partial ordering on set partitions. Work of Sagan and of Goyt has led to enumerative results in avoidance classes of set partitions, which were refined by Dahlberg et al. through the use of combinatorial statistics. We continue this work by computing the distribution of the dimension index (a statistic arising from the supercharacter theory of finite groups) across certain avoidance classes of partitions. In doing so we obtain a novel connection between noncrossing partitions and 321-avoiding permutations, as well as connections to man…
Extending the notion of pattern avoidance in permutations, we study matchings and set partitions whose arc diagram representation avoids a given configuration of three arcs. These configurations, which generalize 3-crossings and 3-nestings, have an interpretation, in the case of matchings, in terms of patterns in full rook placements on Ferrers boards. We enumerate 312-avoiding matchings and partitions, obtaining algebraic generating functions, in contrast with the known D-finite generating functions for the 321-avoiding (i.e., 3-noncrossing) case. Our approach also provides a more direct proo…
There are several versions of permutation pattern avoidance that have arisen in the literature, and some known examples of two different types of pattern avoidance coinciding. In this paper, we examine barred patterns and vincular patterns. Answering a question of Steingrimsson, we determine when barred pattern avoidance coincides with avoiding a finite set of vincular patterns, and when vincular pattern avoidance coincides with avoiding a finite set of barred patterns. There are 720 barred patterns with this property, each having between 3 and 7 letters, of which at most 2 are barred, and the…
We consider the enumeration of ordered set partitions avoiding a permutation pattern, as introduced by Godbole, Goyt, Herdan and Pudwell. Let $\op_{n,k}(p)$ be the number of ordered set partitions of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ into $k$ blocks that avoid a permutation pattern $p$. We establish an explicit identity between the number $\op_{n,k}(p)$ and the numbers of words avoiding the inverse of $p$. This identity allows us to easily translate results on pattern-avoiding words obtained in earlier works into equivalent results on pattern-avoiding ordered set partitions. In particular, \emph{(a)} we dete…
In this paper, the problem of pattern avoidance in generalized non-crossing trees is studied. The generating functions for generalized non-crossing trees avoiding patterns of length one and two are obtained. Lagrange inversion formula is used to obtain the explicit formulas for some special cases. Bijection is also established between generalized non-crossing trees with special pattern avoidance and the little Schröder paths.
Pattern avoidance for permutations has been extensively studied, and has been generalized to vincular patterns, where certain elements can be required to be adjacent. In addition, cyclic permutations, i.e., permutations written in a circle rather than a line, have been frequently studied, including in the context of pattern avoidance. We investigate vincular pattern avoidance on cyclic permutations. In particular, we enumerate many avoidance classes of sets of vincular patterns of length 3, including a complete enumeration for all single patterns of length 3. Further, several of the avoidance …
We investigate various connections between the 0-Hecke monoid, Catalan monoid, and pattern avoidance in permutations, providing new tools for approaching pattern avoidance in an algebraic framework. In particular, we characterize containment of a class of `long' patterns as equivalent to the existence of a corresponding factorization. We then generalize some of our constructions to the affine setting.
Extending the work of Yakoubov, we enumerate the linear extensions of comb posets that avoid certain length-$3$ patterns. We resolve many of Yakoubov's open problems and prove both of the conjectures from her paper.
The study of pattern containment and avoidance for linear permutations is a well-established area of enumerative combinatorics. A cyclic permutation is the set of all rotations of a linear permutation. Callan initiated the study of permutation avoidance in cyclic permutations and characterized the avoidance classes for all single permutations of length 4. We continue this work. In particular, we establish a cyclic variant of the Erdos-Szekeres Theorem that any linear permutation of length mn+1 must contain either the increasing pattern of length m+1 or the decreasing pattern of length n+1. We …
We extend the concept of pattern avoidance in permutations on a totally ordered set to pattern avoidance in permutations on partially ordered sets. The number of permutations on $P$ that avoid the pattern $π$ is denoted $Av_P(π)$. We extend a proof of Simion and Schmidt to show that $Av_P(132) \leq Av_P(123)$ for any poset $P$, and we exactly classify the posets for which equality holds.
The study of pattern avoidance in linear permutations has been an active area of research for almost half a century now, starting with the work of Knuth in 1973. More recently, the question of pattern avoidance in circular permutations has gained significant attention. In 2002-03, Callan and Vella independently characterized circular permutations avoiding a single permutation of size $4$. Building on their results, Domagalski et al. studied circular pattern avoidance for multiple patterns of size $4$. In this article, our main aim is to study circular pattern avoidance of $[4,k]$-pairs, i.e., …
In this paper we study pattern avoidance for affine permutations. In particular, we show that for a given pattern p, there are only finitely many affine permutations in $\widetilde{S}_n$ that avoid p if and only if p avoids the pattern 321. We then count the number of affine permutations that avoid a given pattern p for each p in S_3, as well as give some conjectures for the patterns in S_4.
We study the distribution of the statistics 'number of fixed points' and 'number of excedances' in permutations avoiding subsets of patterns of length 3. We solve all the cases of simultaneous avoidance of more than one pattern, giving generating functions enumerating these two statistics. Some cases are generalized to patterns of arbitrary length. For avoidance of one single pattern we give partial results. We also describe the distribution of these statistics in involutions avoiding any subset of patterns of length 3. The main technique is to use bijections between pattern-avoiding permutati…
In this paper, we view parking functions viewed as labeled Dyck paths in order to study a notion of pattern avoidance first introduced by Remmel and Qiu. In particular we enumerate the parking functions avoiding any set of two or more patterns of length 3, and we obtain a number of well-known combinatorial sequences as a result. Along the way, we find bijections between specific sets of pattern-avoiding parking functions and a number of combinatorial objects such as partitions of polygons and trees with certain restrictions.
Pattern avoidance classes of permutations that cannot be expressed as unions of proper subclasses can be described as the set of subpermutations of a single bijection. In the case that this bijection is a permutation of the natural numbers a structure theorem is given. The structure theorem shows that the class is almost closed under direct sums or has a rational generating function.
In recent years, there has been increasing interest in consecutive pattern avoidance in permutations. In this paper, we introduce two approaches to counting permutations that avoid a set of prescribed patterns consecutively. These algoritms have been implemented in the accompanying Maple package CAV, which can be downloaded from the author's website. As a byproduct of the first algorithm, we have a theorem giving a sufficient condition for when two pattern sets are strongly (consecutively) Wilf-Equivalent. For the implementation of the second algorithm, we define the cluster tail generating fu…
In [Kit1] Kitaev discussed simultaneous avoidance of two 3-patterns with no internal dashes, that is, where the patterns correspond to contiguous subwords in a permutation. In three essentially different cases, the numbers of such $n$-permutations are $2^{n-1}$, the number of involutions in $\mathcal{S}_n$, and $2E_n$, where $E_n$ is the $n$-th Euler number. In this paper we give recurrence relations for the remaining three essentially different cases. To complete the descriptions in [Kit3] and [KitMans], we consider avoidance of a pattern of the form $x-y-z$ (a classical 3-pattern) and beginn…
We investigate pattern avoidance in alternating permutations and generalizations thereof. First, we study pattern avoidance in an alternating analogue of Young diagrams. In particular, we extend Babson-West's notion of shape-Wilf equivalence to apply to alternating permutations and so generalize results of Backelin-West-Xin and Ouchterlony to alternating permutations. Second, we study pattern avoidance in the more general context of permutations with restricted ascents and descents. We consider a question of Lewis regarding permutations that are the reading words of thickened staircase Young t…
We construct an intriguing bijection between $021$-avoiding inversion sequences and $(2413,4213)$-avoiding permutations, which proves a sextuple equidistribution involving double Eulerian statistics. Two interesting applications of this result are also presented. Moreover, this result inspires us to characterize all permutation classes that avoid two patterns of length $4$ whose descent polynomial equals that of separable permutations.
Circular permutations on {1,2,...,n} that avoid a given pattern correspond to ordinary (linear) permutations that end with n and avoid all cyclic rotations of the pattern. Three letter patterns are all but unavoidable in circular permutations and here we give explicit formulas for the number of circular permutations that avoid one four letter pattern. In the three essentially distinct cases, the counts are as follows: the Fibonacci number F_{2n-3} for the pattern 1324, 2^{n-1}-(n-1) for 1342, and 2^{n}+1-2n-{n}choose{3} for 1234.
Ascent sequences are sequences of nonnegative integers with restrictions on the size of each letter, depending on the number of ascents preceding it in the sequence. Ascent sequences have recently been related to (2+2)-free posets and various other combinatorial structures. We study pattern avoidance in ascent sequences, giving several results for patterns of lengths up to 4, for Wilf equivalence and for growth rates. We establish bijective connections between pattern avoiding ascent sequences and various other combinatorial objects, in particular with set partitions. We also make a number of …
We characterize permutations whose Bruhat graphs can be drawn in the plane and those whose Bruhat graphs can be drawn in the torus. In particular, we show these properties are characterized by avoiding finitely many permutations.
In [BabStein] Babson and Steingr\'ımsson introduced generalized permutation patterns that allow the requirement that two adjacent letters in a pattern must be adjacent in the permutation. In [Kit1] Kitaev considered simultaneous avoidance (multi-avoidance) of two or more 3-patterns with no internal dashes, that is, where the patterns correspond to contiguous subwords in a permutation. There either an explicit or a recursive formula was given for all but one case of simultaneous avoidance of more than two patterns. In this paper we find the exponential generating function for the remaining case…
We study permutations $p$ such that both $p$ and $p^2$ avoid a given pattern $q$. We obtain a generating function for the case of $q=312$ (equivalently, $q=231$), we prove that if $q$ is monotone increasing, then above a certain length, there are no such permutations, and we prove an upper bound for $q=321$. We also present some intriguing questions in the case of $q=132$.
We consider the set of affine permutations that avoid a fixed permutation pattern. Crites has given a simple characterization for when this set is infinite. We find the generating series for this set using the Coxeter length statistic and prove that it can always be represented as a rational function. We also give a characterization of the patterns for which the coefficients of the generating series are periodic. The proofs exploit a new polyhedral encoding for the affine symmetric group.
Patience Sorting is a combinatorial algorithm that can be viewed as an iterated, non-recursive form of the Schensted Insertion Algorithm. In recent work the authors have shown that Patience Sorting provides an algorithmic description for permutations avoiding the barred (generalized) permutation pattern $3-\bar{1}-42$. Motivated by this and a recently formulated geometric form for Patience Sorting in terms of certain intersecting lattice paths, we study the related themes of restricted input and avoidance of similar barred permutation patterns. One such result is to characterize those permutat…
This paper considers the enumeration of ternary trees (i.e. rooted ordered trees in which each vertex has 0 or 3 children) avoiding a contiguous ternary tree pattern. We begin by finding recurrence relations for several simple tree patterns; then, for more complex trees, we compute generating functions by extending a known algorithm for pattern-avoiding binary trees. Next, we present an alternate one-dimensional notation for trees which we use to find bijections that explain why certain pairs of tree patterns yield the same avoidance generating function. Finally, we compare our bijections to k…
We study the relationship between two notions of pattern avoidance for involutions in the symmetric group and their restriction to fixed-point-free involutions. The first is classical, while the second appears in the geometry of certain spherical varieties and generalizes the notion of pattern avoidance for perfect matchings studied by Jelínek. The first notion can always be expressed in terms of the second, and we give an effective algorithm to do so. We also give partial results characterizing the families of involutions where the converse holds. As a consequence, we prove two conjectures of…
In this paper, we extend to a non-consecutive case, the study of the pattern matching condition on the wreath product of the cyclic group and the symmetric group initiated by the authors in a previous paper. The main focus of our paper is (colored) patterns of length 2, although a number of enumerative results for longer patterns are also presented. A new non-trivial bijective interpretation for the Catalan numbers is found, in terms of simultaneously bi-avoiding two patterns in a wreath product.
In this paper we consider the enumeration of binary trees avoiding non-contiguous binary tree patterns. We begin by computing closed formulas for the number of trees avoiding a single binary tree pattern with 4 or fewer leaves and compare these results to analogous work for contiguous tree patterns. Next, we give an explicit generating function that counts binary trees avoiding a single non-contiguous tree pattern according to number of leaves. In addition, we enumerate binary trees that simultaneously avoid more than one tree pattern. Finally, we explore connections between pattern-avoiding t…
We give some results about a bijection associating each permutation with a subexcedant function. This function is related to a particular decomposition of the permutation as a product of transpositions and therefore it has been called transposition array in the literature. In particular, we identify anti-exceedance positions of the permutation through its transposition array and we give an expression of the bijection in terms of the cycle structure of the permutation. We give a characterization of a family of permutations having a non-decreasing transposition array and study length 3 pattern a…
Inversion sequences of length $n$ are integer sequences $e_1,\ldots ,e_n$ with $0\le e_i<i$ for all $i$, which are in bijection with the permutations of length $n$. In this paper, we classify all Wilf equivalence classes of pattern-avoiding inversion sequences of length-4 patterns except for one case (whether 3012 $\equiv$ 3201) and enumerate some of the length-4 pattern-avoiding inversion sequences that are in the OEIS.
We extend earlier work of the same author to enumerate alternating permutations avoiding the permutation pattern 2143. We use a generating tree approach to construct a recursive bijection between the set A_{2n}(2143) of alternating permutations of length 2n avoiding 2143 and standard Young tableaux of shape (n, n, n) and between the set A_{2n + 1}(2143) of alternating permutations of length 2n + 1 avoiding 2143 and shifted standard Young tableaux of shape (n + 2, n + 1, n). We also give a number of conjectures and open questions on pattern avoidance in alternating permutations and generalizati…
Jelínek, Mansour, and Shattuck studied Wilf-equivalence among pairs of patterns of the form $\{σ,τ\}$ where $σ$ is a set partition of size $3$ with at least two blocks. They obtained an upper bound for the number of Wilf-equivalence classes for such pairs. We show that their upper bound is the exact number of equivalence classes, thus solving a problem posed by them.
We show that the principal order ideal below an element w in the Bruhat order on involutions in a symmetric group is a Boolean lattice if and only if w avoids the patterns 4321, 45312 and 456123. Similar criteria for signed permutations are also stated. Involutions with this property are enumerated with respect to natural statistics. In this context, a bijective correspondence with certain Motzkin paths is demonstrated.
Pattern avoidance in alternating sign rectangles I: Extended avoidance
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics（卢布尔雅那大学数学物理学院）；Institute for Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics（数学、物理与力学研究所）；KTH Royal Institute of Technology（瑞典皇家理工学院）
For a set of permutation patterns $Π$, let $F^\text{st}_n(Π,q)$ be the st-polynomial of permutations avoiding all patterns in $Π$. Suppose $312\inΠ$. For a class of permutation statistics which includes inversion and descent statistics, we give a formula that expresses $F^\text{st}_n(Π;q)$ in terms of these st-polynomials where we take some subblocks of the patterns in $Π$. Using this formula, we can construct many examples of nontrivial st-Wilf equivalences. In particular, this disproves a conjecture by Dokos, Dwyer, Johnson, Sagan, and Selsor that all $\text{inv}$-Wilf equivalences are trivi…
We demonstrate a natural bijection between a subclass of alternating sign matrices (ASMs) defined by a condition on the corresponding monotone triangle which we call the gapless condition and a subclass of totally symmetric self-complementary plane partitions defined by a similar condition on the corresponding fundamental domains or Magog triangles. We prove that, when restricted to permutations, this class of ASMs reduces to 312-avoiding permutations. This leads us to generalize pattern avoidance on permutations to a family of words associated to ASMs, which we call Gog words. We translate th…
This paper considers the enumeration of trees avoiding a contiguous pattern. We provide an algorithm for computing the generating function that counts n-leaf binary trees avoiding a given binary tree pattern t. Equipped with this counting mechanism, we study the analogue of Wilf equivalence in which two tree patterns are equivalent if the respective n-leaf trees that avoid them are equinumerous. We investigate the equivalence classes combinatorially. Toward establishing bijective proofs of tree pattern equivalence, we develop a general method of restructuring trees that conjecturally succeeds …
Brändén and Claesson introduced mesh patterns to provide explicit expansions for certain permutation statistics as linear combinations of (classical) permutation patterns. The first systematic study of avoidance of mesh patterns was conducted by Hilmarsson et al., while the first systematic study of the distribution of mesh patterns was conducted by the first two authors. In this paper, we provide far-reaching generalizations for 8 known distribution results and 5 known avoidance results related to mesh patterns by giving distribution or avoidance formulas for certain infinite families of mesh…
We give a permutation pattern avoidance criteria for determining when the projection map from the flag variety to a Grassmannian induces a fiber bundle structure on a Schubert variety. In particular, we introduce the notion of a split pattern and show that a Schubert variety has such a fiber bundle structure if and only if the corresponding permutation avoids the split patterns 3|12 and 23|1. Continuing, we show that a Schubert variety is an iterated fiber bundle of Grassmannian Schubert varieties if and only if the corresponding permutation avoids (non-split) patterns 3412, 52341, and 635241.…
A set partition $σ$ of $[n]=\{1,\dots,n\}$ contains another set partition $π$ if restricting $σ$ to some $S\subseteq[n]$ and then standardizing the result gives $π$. Otherwise we say $σ$ avoids $π$. For all sets of patterns consisting of partitions of $[3]$, the sizes of the avoidance classes were determined by Sagan and by Goyt. Set partitions are in bijection with restricted growth functions (RGFs) for which Wachs and White defined four fundamental statistics. We consider the distributions of these statistics over various avoidance classes, thus obtaining multivariate analogues of the previo…
We study pattern avoidance by combinatorial objects other than permutations, namely by ordered partitions of an integer and by permutations of a multiset. In the former case we determine the generating function explicitly, for integer compositions of n that avoid a given pattern of length 3 and we show that the answer is the same for all such patterns. We also show that the number of multiset permutations that avoid a given three-letter pattern is the same for all such patterns, thereby extending and refining earlier results of Albert, Aldred et al., and by Atkinson, Walker and Linton. Further…
