arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Igor Pak.
We present new proofs and generalizations of unimodality of the q-binomial coefficients \binom{n}{k}_q as polynomials in q. We use an algebraic approach by interpreting the differences between numbers of certain partitions as Kronecker coefficients of representations of S_n. Other applications of this approach include strict unimodality of the diagonal q-binomial coefficients and unimodality of certain partition statistics.
Guibert and Linusson introduced the family of doubly alternating Baxter permutations, i.e. Baxter permutations $σ\in S_n$, such that $σ$ and $σ^{-1}$ are alternating. They proved that the number of such permutations in $S_{2n}$ and $S_{2n+1}$ is the Catalan number $C_n$. In this paper we explore the expected limit shape of such permutations, following the approach by Miner and Pak.
We initiate the study of limit shapes for random permutations avoiding a given pattern. Specifically, for patterns of length 3, we obtain delicate results on the asymptotics of distributions of positions of numbers in the permutations. We view the permutations as 0-1 matrices to describe the resulting asymptotics geometrically. We then apply our results to obtain a number of results on distributions of permutation statistics.
We prove strict unimodality of the q-binomial coefficients \binom{n}{k}_q as polynomials in q. The proof is based on the combinatorics of certain Young tableaux and the semigroup property of Kronecker coefficients of S_n representations.
We give a new proof of Steinitz's classical theorem in the case of plane triangulations, which allows us to obtain a new general bound on the grid size of the simplicial polytope realizing a given triangulation, subexponential in a number of special cases. Formally, we prove that every plane triangulation $G$ with $n$ vertices can be embedded in $\mathbb{R}^2$ in such a way that it is the vertical projection of a convex polyhedral surface. We show that the vertices of this surface may be placed in a $4n^3 \times 8n^5 \times ζ(n)$ integer grid, where $ζ(n) \leq (500 n^8)^{τ(G)}$ and $τ(G)$ denotes the shedding diameter of $G$, a quantity defined in the paper.
In [BNRR], it was shown that tiling of general regions with two rectangles is NP-complete, except for a few trivial special cases. In a different direction, Rémila showed that for simply connected regions by two rectangles, the tileability can be solved in quadratic time (in the area). We prove that there is a finite set of at most 10^6 rectangles for which the tileability problem of simply connected regions is NP-complete, closing the gap between positive and negative results in the field. We also prove that counting such rectangular tilings is #P-complete, a first result of this kind.
Tiling planar regions with dominoes is a classical problem in which the decision and counting problems are polynomial. We prove a variety of hardness results (both NP- and #P-completeness) for different generalizations of dominoes in three and higher dimensions.
We study the remarkable Saxl conjecture which states that tensor squares of certain irreducible representations of the symmetric groups S_n contain all irreducibles as their constituents. Our main result is that they contain representations corresponding to hooks and two row Young diagrams. For that, we develop a new sufficient condition for the positivity of Kronecker coefficients in terms of characters, and use combinatorics of rim hook tableaux combined with known results on unimodality of certain partition functions. We also present connections and speculations on random characters of S_n.
Cayley polytopes were defined recently as convex hulls of Cayley compositions introduced by Cayley in 1857. In this paper we resolve Braun's conjecture, which expresses the volume of Cayley polytopes in terms of the number of connected graphs. We extend this result to two one-variable deformations of Cayley polytopes (which we call t-Cayley and t-Gayley polytopes), and to the most general two-variable deformations, which we call Tutte polytopes. The volume of the latter is given via an evaluation of the Tutte polynomial of the complete graph. Our approach is based on an explicit triangulation of the Cayley and Tutte polytope. We prove that simplices in the triangulations correspond to labeled trees. The heart of the proof is a direct bijection based on the neighbors-first search graph traversal algorithm.
We construct an uncountable family of finitely generated groups of intermediate growth, with growth functions of new type. These functions can have large oscillations between lower and upper bounds, both of which come from a wide class of functions. In particular, we can have growth oscillating between $e^{n^a}$ and any prescribed function, growing as rapidly as desired. Our construction is built on top of any of the Grigorchuk groups of intermediate growth, and is a variation on the limit of permutational wreath product.
Based on the ideas in [CKP], we introduce the weighted analogue of the branching rule for the classical hook length formula, and give two proofs of this result. The first proof is completely bijective, and in a special case gives a new short combinatorial proof of the hook length formula. Our second proof is probabilistic, generalizing the (usual) hook walk proof of Green-Nijenhuis-Wilf, as well as the q-walk of Kerov. Further applications are also presented.
We study the problem of acute triangulations of convex polyhedra and the space R^n. Here an acute triangulation is a triangulation into simplices whose dihedral angles are acute. We prove that acute triangulations of the n-cube do not exist for n>=4. Further, we prove that acute triangulations of the space R^n do not exist for n>= 5. In the opposite direction, in R^3, we present a construction of an acute triangulation of the cube, the regular octahedron and a non-trivial acute triangulation of the regular tetrahedron. We also prove nonexistence of an acute triangulation of R^4 if all dihedral angles are bounded away from pi/2.
We study the shape of inflated surfaces introduced in \cite{B1} and \cite{P1}. More precisely, we analyze profiles of surfaces obtained by inflating a convex polyhedron, or more generally an almost everywhere flat surface, with a symmetry plane. We show that such profiles are in a one-parameter family of curves which we describe explicitly as the solutions of a certain differential equation.
The square peg problem asks whether every Jordan curve in the plane has four points which form a square. The problem has been resolved (positively) for various classes of curves, but remains open in full generality. We present two new direct proofs for the case of piecewise linear curves.
In this paper we analyze O'Hara's partition bijection. We present three type of results. First, we show that O'Hara's bijection can be viewed geometrically as a certain scissor congruence type result. Second, we obtain a number of new complexity bounds, proving that O'Hara's bijection is efficient in several special cases and mildly exponential in general. Finally, we prove that for identities with finite support, the map of the O'Hara's bijection can be computed in polynomial time, i.e. much more efficiently than by O'Hara's construction.
We show that the Kauffman bracket $[L]$ of a checkerboard colorable virtual link $L$ is an evaluation of the Bollobás-Riordan polynomial $R_{G_L}$ of a ribbon graph associated with $L$. This result generalizes Thistlethwaite's celebrated theorem relating the Kauffman bracket with the Tutte polynomial of planar graphs.
We present a new algebraic extension of the classical MacMahon Master Theorem. The basis of our extension is the Koszul duality for non-quadratic algebras defined by Berger. Combinatorial implications are also discussed.
We present several non-commutative extensions of the MacMahon Master Theorem, further extending the results of Cartier-Foata and Garoufalidis-Le-Zeilberger. The proofs are combinatorial and new even in the classical cases. We also give applications to the $β$-extension and Krattenthaler-Schlosser's $q$-analogue.