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Ilse Fischer

Publications and source records attributed to Ilse Fischer.

51 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Refined enumerations of alternating sign matrices: monotone (d,m)-trapezoids with prescribed top and bottom row

Monotone triangles are plane integer arrays of triangular shape with certain monotonicity conditions along rows and diagonals. Their significance is mainly due to the fact that they correspond to $n \times n$ alternating sign matrices when prescribing $(1,2,...,n)$ as bottom row of the array. We define monotone $(d,m)$--trapezoids as monotone triangles with $m$ rows where the $d-1$ top rows are removed. (These objects are also equivalent to certain partial alternating sign matrices.) It is known that the number of monotone triangles with bottom row $(k_1,...,k_n)$ is given by a polynomial $α(n;k_1,...,k_n)$ in the $k_i$'s. The main purpose of this paper is to show that the number of monotone $(d,m)$--trapezoids with prescribed top and bottom row appears as a coefficient in the expansion of a specialization of $α(n;k_1,...,k_n)$ with respect to a certain polynomial basis. This settles a generalization of a recent conjecture of Romik and the author. Among other things, the result is used to express the number of monotone triangles with bottom row $(1,2,...,i-1,i+1,...,j-1,j+1,...,n)$ (which is, by the standard bijection, also the number of $n \times n$ alternating sign matrices with given top two rows) in terms of the number of $n \times n$ alternating sign matrices with prescribed top and bottom row, and, by a formula of Stroganov for the latter numbers, to provide an explicit formula for the first numbers. (A formula of this type was first derived by Karklinsky and Romik using the relation of alternating sign matrices to the six--vertex model.)

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More refined enumerations of alternating sign matrices

We study a further refinement of the standard refined enumeration of alternating sign matrices (ASMs) according to their first two rows instead of just the first row, and more general "d-refined" enumerations of ASMs according to the first d rows. For the doubly-refined case of d=2, we derive a system of linear equations satisfied by the doubly-refined enumeration numbers A_{n,i,j} that enumerate such matrices. We give a conjectural explicit formula for A_{n,i,j} and formulate several other conjectures about the sufficiency of the linear equations to determine the A_{n,i,j}'s and about an extension of the linear equations to the general d-refined enumerations.

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The operator formula for monotone triangles - simplified proof and three generalizations

We provide a simplified proof of our operator formula for the number of monotone triangles with prescribed bottom row, which enables us to deduce three generalizations of the formula. One of the generalizations concerns a certain weighted enumeration of monotone triangles which specializes to the weighted enumeration of alternating sign matrices with respect to the number of -1s in the matrix when prescribing $(1,2,...,n)$ as the bottom row of the monotone triangle.

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An operator formula for the number of halved monotone triangles with prescribed bottom row

Monotone triangles are certain triangular arrays of integers, which correspond to $n \times n$ alternating sign matrices when prescribing $(1,2,...,n)$ as bottom row of the monotone triangle. In this article we define halved monotone triangles, a specialization of which correspond to vertically symmetric alternating sign matrices. We derive an operator formula for the number of halved monotone triangles with prescribed bottom row which is analogous to our operator formula for the number of ordinary monotone triangle.

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A new proof of the refined alternating sign matrix theorem

In the early 1980s, Mills, Robbins and Rumsey conjectured, and in 1996 Zeilberger proved a simple product formula for the number of $n \times n$ alternating sign matrices with a 1 at the top of the $i$-th column. We give an alternative proof of this formula using our operator formula for the number of monotone triangles with prescribed bottom row. In addition, we provide the enumeration of certain 0-1-(-1) matrices generalizing alternating sign matrices.

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The number of monotone triangles with prescribed bottom row

We show that the number of monotone triangles with prescribed bottom row (k_1,...,k_n) is given by a simple product formula which remarkably involves (shift) operators. Monotone triangles with bottom row (1,2,...,n) are in bijection with $n \times n$ alternating sign matrices.

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Another refinement of the Bender-Knuth (ex-)Conjecture

We compute the generating function of column-strict plane partitions with parts in {1,2,...,n}, at most c columns, p rows of odd length and k parts equal to n. This refines both, Krattenthaler's ["The major counting of nonintersecting lattice paths and generating functions for tableaux", Mem. Amer. Math. Soc. 115 (1995)] and the author's ["A method for proving polynomial enumeration formulas", preprint] refinement of the Bender-Knuth (ex-)Conjecture. The result is proved by an extension of the method for proving polynomial enumeration formulas which was introduced by the author to q-quasi-polynomials.

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A method for proving polynomial enumeration formulas

We present an elementary method for proving enumeration formulas which are polynomials in certain parameters if others are fixed and factorize into distinct linear factors over Z. Roughly speaking the idea is to prove such formulas by ``explaining'' their zeros using an appropriate combinatorial extension of the objects under consideration to negative integer parameters. We apply this method to prove a new refinement of the Bender-Knuth (ex-)Conjecture, which easily implies the Bender-Knuth (ex-)Conjecture itself. This is probably the most elementary way to prove this result currently known. Furthermore we adapt our method to q-polynomials, which allows us to derive generating function results as well. Finally we use this method to give another proof for the enumeration of semistandard tableaux of a fixed shape, which is opposed to the Bender-Knuth (ex-)Conjecture refinement a multivariate application of our method.

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Even circuits of prescribed clockwise parity

We show that a graph has an orientation under which every circuit of even length is clockwise odd if and only if the graph contains no subgraph which is, after the contraction of at most one circuit of odd length, an even subdivision of K_{2,3}. In fact we give a more general characterisation of graphs that have an orientation under which every even circuit has a prescribed clockwise parity. This problem was motivated by the study of Pfaffian graphs, which are the graphs that have an orientation under which every alternating circuit is clockwise odd. Their significance is that they are precisely the graphs to which Kasteleyn's powerful method for enumerating perfect matchings may be applied.

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A bijective proof of the hook-length formula for shifted standard tableaux

We present a bijective proof of the hook-length formula for shifted standard tableaux of a fixed shape based on a modified jeu de taquin and the ideas of the bijective proof of the hook-length formula for ordinary standard tableaux by Novelli, Pak and Stoyanovskii. In their proof Novelli, Pak and Stoyanovskii define a bijection between arbitrary fillings of the Ferrers diagram with the integers $1,2,...,n$ and pairs of standard tableaux and hook tabloids. In our shifted version of their algorithm the map from the set of arbitrary fillings of the shifted Ferrers diagram onto the set of shifted standard tableaux is analog to the construction of Novelli, Pak and Stoyanovskii, however, unlike to their algorithm, we are forced to use the 'rowwise' total order of the cells in the shifted Ferrers diagram rather than the 'columnwise' total order as the underlying order in the algorithm. Unfortunately the construction of the shifted hook tabloid is more complicated in the shifted case. As a side-result we obtain a simple random algorithm for generating shifted standard tableaux of a given shape, which produces every such tableau equally likely.

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A symmetry theorem on a modified jeu de taquin

For their bijective proof of the hook-length formula for the number of standard tableaux of a fixed shape Novelli, Pak and Stoyanovskii define a modified jeu de taquin which transforms an arbitrary filling of the Ferrers diagram with $1,2,...,n$ (tabloid) into a standard tableau. Their definition relies on a total order of the cells in the Ferrers diagram induced by a special standard tableau, however, this definition also makes sense for the total order induced by any other standard tableau. Given two standard tableaux $P,Q$ of the same shape we show that the number of tabloids which result in $P$ if we perform modified jeu de taquin with respect to the total order induced by $Q$ is equal to the number of tabloids which result in $Q$ if we perform modified jeu de taquin with respect to $P$. This symmetry theorem extends to skew shapes and shifted skew shapes.

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Moments of inertia associated with the lozenge tilings of a hexagon

Consider the probability that an arbitrary chosen lozenge tiling of the hexagon with side lengths a, b, c, a, b, c contains the horizontal lozenge with lowest vertex (x,y) as if it described the distribution of mass in the plane. We compute the horizontal and the vertical moments of inertia with respect to this distribution. This solves a problem by Propp [1, Problem 7].

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A characterisation of Pfaffian near bipartite graphs

In 1967 Kasteleyn introduced a powerful method for enumerating the 1-factors of planar graphs. In fact his method can be extended to graphs which permit an orientation under which every alternating circuit is clockwise odd. Graphs with this property are called {\it Pfaffian}. Little characterised Pfaffian bipartite graphs in terms of forbidden subgraphs in 1975. We extend his characterisation to near bipartite graphs.

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Towards a characterisation of Pfaffian graphs

A bipartite graph G is known to be Pfaffian if and only if it does not contain an even subdivision H of $K_{3,3}$ such that $G - VH$ contains a 1-factor. However a general characterisation of Pfaffian graphs in terms of forbidden subgraphs is currently not known. In this paper we describe a possible approach to the derivation of such a characterisation. We also extend the characterisation for bipartite graphs to a slightly more general class of graphs.

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