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Amarpreet Rattan

Publications and source records attributed to Amarpreet Rattan.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

Centrality of star and monotone factorisations

A factorisation problem in the symmetric group is central if conjugate permutations always have the same number of factorisations. We give the first fully combinatorial proof of the centrality of transitive star factorisations that is valid in all genera, which answers a natural question of Goulden and Jackson from 2009. We begin by showing that the set of star factorisations is equinumerous with a certain set of monotone factorisations, a new result. We give more than one proof of this, and, crucially, one of our proofs is bijective. As a corollary we obtain new formulae for some monotone double Hurwitz factorisations, and a new relation between Hurwitz and monotone Hurwitz factorisations. We also generalise a theorem of Goulden and Jackson from 2009 that states that the transitive power of Jucys-Murphy elements are central. Our theorem states that the transitive image of any symmetric function evaluated at Jucys-Murphy elements is central, which gives a transitive version of Jucys' original result from 1974.

math.CO↗
arXiv2025

Combinatorial enumeration of lattice paths by flaws with respect to a linear boundary of rational slope

Let $a,b$ be fixed positive coprime integers. For a positive integer $g$, write $W_k(g)$ for the set of lattice paths from the startpoint $(0,0)$ to the endpoint $(ga,gb)$ with steps restricted to $\{(1,0), (0,1)\}$, having exactly $k$ flaws (lattice points lying above the linear boundary connecting the startpoint to the endpoint). We determine $|W_k(g)|$ for all $k$ and $g$. The enumeration of lattice paths with respect to a linear boundary while accounting for flaws has a long and rich history, dating back at least to the 1949 results of Chung and Feller. The only previously known values of $|W_k(g)|$ are the extremal cases $k = 0$ and $k = g(a+b)-1$, determined by Bizley in 1954. Our main combinatorial result is that a certain subset of $W_k(g)$ is in bijection with $W_{k+1}(g)$. One consequence is that the value $|W_k(g)|$ is constant over each successive set of $a+b$ values of $k$. This in turn allows us to derive a recursion for $|W_k(g)|$ whose base case is given by Bizley's result for $k=0$. We solve this recursion to obtain a closed form expression for $|W_k(g)|$ for all $k$ and $g$. Our methods are purely combinatorial.

math.CO↗
arXiv2024

On the average number of cycles in conjugacy class products

We show that for the product of two fixed point free conjugacy classes, the average number of cycles is always very similar. Specifically, our main result is that for a randomly chosen pair of fixed point free permutations of cycle types $α$ and $β$, the average number of cycles in their product is between $H_n-3$ and $H_n+1$, where $H_n$ is the harmonic number.

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arXiv2022

Combinatorial and Algebraic Enumeration: a survey of the work of Ian P. Goulden and David M. Jackson

In this survey we discuss some of the significant contributions of Ian Goulden and David Jackson in the areas of classical enumeration, symmetric functions, factorizations of permutations, and algebraic foundations of quantum field theory. Through their groundbreaking textbook, {\em Combinatorial Enumeration}, and their numerous research papers, both together and with their many students, they have had an influence in areas of bioinformatics, mathematical chemistry, algorithmic computer science, and theoretical physics. Here we review and set in context highlights of their 40 years of collaborative work.

math.CO↗
arXiv2022

A Comparison of Integer Partitions Based on Smallest Part

For positive integers $n, L$ and $s$, consider the following two sets that both contain partitions of $n$ with the difference between the largest and smallest parts bounded by $L$: the first set contains partitions with smallest part $s$, while the second set contains partitions with smallest part at least $s+1$. Let $G_{L,s}(q)$ be the generating series whose coefficient of $q^n$ is difference between the sizes of the above two sets of partitions. This generating series was introduced by Berkovich and Uncu in 2019. Previous results concentrated on the nonnegativity of $G_{L,s}(q)$ in the cases $s=1$ and $s=2$. In the present paper, we show the eventual positivity of $G_{L,s}(q)$ for general s and also find a precise nonnegativity result for the case $s=3$.

math.CO↗
arXiv2022

$k$-Factorizations of the full cycle and generalized Mahonian statistics on $k$-forests

We develop direct bijections between the set $F_n^k$ of minimal factorizations of the long cycle $(0\,1\,\cdots\, kn)$ into $(k+1)$-cycle factors and the set $R_n^k$ of rooted labelled forests on vertices $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ with edges coloured with $\{0,1,\ldots,k-1\}$ that map natural statistics on the former to generalized Mahonian statistics on the latter. In particular, we examine the generalized major index on forests $R_n^k$ and show that it has a simple and natural interpretation in the context of factorizations. Our results extend those by the present authors (2021), which treated the case $k=1$ through a different approach, and provide a bijective proof of the equidistribution observed by Yan (1997) between displacement of $k$-parking functions and generalized inversions of $k$-forests.

math.CO↗
arXiv2021

On Conjectures Concerning the Smallest Part and Missing Parts of Integer Partitions

For positive integers $s$ and $L \geq 3$, Berkovich and Uncu (Ann. Comb. $23$ ($2019$) $263$--$284$) conjectured an inequality between the sizes of two closely related sets of partitions whose parts lie in the interval $\{s, \ldots, L+s\}$. Further restrictions are placed on the sets by specifying impermissible parts as well as a minimum part. The authors proved their conjecture for the cases $s=1$ and $s=2$. In the present article, we prove the conjecture for general $s$ by proving a stronger theorem. We also prove other related conjectures found in the same paper.

math.CO↗
arXiv2019

Trees, Parking Functions and Factorizations of Full Cycles

Parking functions of length $n$ are well known to be in correspondence with both labelled trees on $n+1$ vertices and factorizations of the full cycle $σ_n=(0\,1\,\cdots\,n)$ into $n$ transpositions. In fact, these correspondences can be refined: Kreweras equated the area enumerator of parking functions with the inversion enumerator of labelled trees, while an elegant bijection of Stanley maps the area of parking functions to a natural statistic on factorizations of $σ_n$. We extend these relationships in two principal ways. First, we introduce a bivariate refinement of the inversion enumerator of trees and show that it matches a similarly refined enumerator for factorizations. Secondly, we characterize all full cycles $σ$ such that Stanley's function remains a bijection when the canonical cycle $σ_n$ is replaced by $σ$. We also exhibit a connection between our refined inversion enumerator and Haglund's bounce statistic on parking functions.

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arXiv2016

On the growth of the Kronecker coefficients: accompanying appendices

This text is an appendix to our work "On the growth of Kronecker coefficients", arXiv:1607.02887. Here, we provide some complementary theorems, remarks, and calculations that for the sake of space are not going to appear into the final version of our paper. We follow the same terminology and notation. External references to numbered equations, theorems, etc. are pointers to arXiv:1607.02887.

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arXiv2016

On the growth of the Kronecker coefficients

We study the rate of growth experienced by the Kronecker coefficients as we add cells to the rows and columns indexing partitions. We do this by moving to the setting of the reduced Kronecker coefficients.

math.RT↗
arXiv2015

On products of long cycles: short cycle dependence and separation probabilities

We present various results on multiplying cycles in the symmetric group. Our first result is a generalisation of the following theorem of Boccara (1980): the number of ways of writing an odd permutation in the symmetric group on $n$ symbols as a product of an $n$-cycle and an $n-1$-cycle is independent of the permutation chosen. We give a number of different approaches of our generalisation. One partial proof uses an inductive method which we also apply to other problems. In particular, we give a formula for the distribution of the number of cycles over all products of cycles of fixed lengths. Another application is related to the recent notion of separation probabilities for permutations introduced by Bernardi, Du, Morales and Stanley (2014).

math.CO↗
arXiv2014

Factorizations of permutations into star transpositions

We give a compact expression for the number of factorizations of any permutation into a minimal number of transpositions of the form $(1 i)$. Our result generalizes earlier work of Pak in which substantial restrictions were placed on the permutation being factored.

math.CO↗
arXiv2009

Enumeration of non-crossing pairings on bit strings

A non-crossing pairing on a bitstring matches 1s and 0s in a manner such that the pairing diagram is nonintersecting. By considering such pairings on arbitrary bitstrings $1^{n_1} 0^{m_1} ... 1^{n_r} 0^{m_r}$, we generalize classical problems from the theory of Catalan structures. In particular, it is very difficult to find useful explicit formulas for the enumeration function $ϕ(n_1, m_1, ..., n_r, m_r)$, which counts the number of pairings as a function of the underlying bitstring. We determine explicit formulas for $ϕ$, and also prove general upper bounds in terms of Fuss-Catalan numbers by relating non-crossing pairings to other generalized Catalan structures (that are in some sense more natural). This enumeration problem arises in the theory of random matrices and free probability.

math.CO↗
arXiv2007

Positivity results for Stanley's character polynomials

Stanley introduced expressions for the normalized characters of the symmetric group and stated some positivity conjectures for these expressions. Here, we give an affirmative partial answer to Stanley's positivity conjectures about the expressions using results on Kerov polynomials. In particular, we use new positivity results by Goulden and the present author. We shall see that the generating series $C(t)$ introduced by them is critical to our discussion.

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arXiv2007

Upper bound on the characters of the symmetric groups for balanced Young diagrams and a generalized Frobenius formula

We study asymptotics of an irreducible representation of the symmetric group S_n corresponding to a balanced Young diagram λ(a Young diagram with at most C\sqrt{n} rows and columns for some fixed constant C) in the limit as n tends to infinity. We show that there exists a constant D (which depends only on C) with a property that |χ^λ(π)| = | Tr ρ^λ(π)/Tr ρ^λ(e) | < [ D max(1,|π|^2/n) / \sqrt{n}} ]^{|π|}, where |π| denotes the length of a permutation (the minimal number of factors necessary to write πas a product of transpositions). Our main tool is an analogue of Frobenius character formula which holds true not only for cycles but for arbitrary permutations.

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