arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Per Alexandersson.
We give a bijective proof of a result by R.~Mantaci and F.~Rakotondrajao from 2003, regarding even and odd derangement with a fixed number of excedances. We refine this result by also considering the set of right-to-left minima.
We study a subset of permutations, where entries are restricted to having the same remainder as the index, modulo some integer $k \geq 2$. We show that when also imposing the classical 132- or 213-avoidance restriction on the permutations, we recover the Fuss--Catalan numbers and some special cases of the Raney numbers. Surprisingly, an analogous statement also holds when we impose the mod $k$ restriction on a Catalan family of subexcedant functions. Finally, we completely enumerate all combinations of mod-$k$-alternating permutations, avoiding two patterns of length 3. This is analogous to the systematic study by Simion and Schmidt, of permutations avoiding two patterns of length 3.
We study a sorting procedure (run-sorting) on permutations, where runs are rearranged in lexicographic order. We describe a rather surprising bijection on permutations on length $n$, with the property that it sends the set of peak-values to the set of peak-values after run-sorting. We also prove that the expected number of descents in a permutation $σ\in S_{n}$ after run-sorting is equal to $(n-2)/3$. Moreover, we provide a closed form of the exponential generating function introduced by Nabawanda, Rakotondrajao and Bamunoba in 2020, for the number of run-sorted permutations of $[n]$, ($RSP(n)$) having $k$ runs, which gives a new interpretation to the sequence A124324 in the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. We show that the descent generating polynomials, $A_{n}(t)$ for $RSP(n)$ are real rooted, and satisfy an interlacing property similar to that satisfied by the Eulerian polynomials. Finally, we study run-sorted binary words and compute the expected number of descents after run-sorting a binary word of length $n$.
We prove several new instances of the cyclic sieving phenomenon (CSP) on Catalan objects of type A and type B. Moreover, we refine many of the known instances of the CSP on Catalan objects. For example, we consider triangulations refined by the number of "ears", non-crossing matchings with a fixed number of short edges, and non-crossing configurations with a fixed number of loops and edges.
We give a new characterization of the vertical-strip LLT polynomials $\mathrm{LLT}_P(x;q)$ as the unique family of symmetric functions that satisfy certain combinatorial relations. This characterization is then used to prove an explicit combinatorial expansion of vertical-strip LLT polynomials in terms of elementary symmetric functions. Such formulas were conjectured independently by A. Garsia et al. and the first named author, and are governed by the combinatorics of orientations of unit-interval graphs. The obtained expansion is manifestly positive if $q$ is replaced by $q+1$, thus recovering a recent result of M. D'Adderio. Our results are based on linear relations among LLT polynomials that arise in the work of D'Adderio, and of E. Carlsson and A. Mellit. To some extent these relations are given new bijective proofs using colorings of unit-interval graphs. As a bonus we obtain a new characterization of chromatic quasisymmetric functions of unit-interval graphs.
We examine a few families of semistandard Young tableaux, for which we observe the cyclic sieving phenomenon under promotion. The first family we consider consists of stretched hook shapes, where we use the cocharge generating polynomial as CSP-polynomial. The second family we consider consists of skew shapes, consisting of rectangles. Again, the charge generating polynomial together with promotion exhibits the cyclic sieving phenomenon. This generalizes earlier result by B. Rhoades and later B. Fontaine and J. Kamnitzer. Finally, we consider certain skew ribbons, where promotion behaves in a predictable manner. This result is stated in form of a bicyclic sieving phenomenon. One of the tools we use is a novel method for computing charge of skew semistandard tableaux, in the case when every number in the tableau occur with the same frequency.
In 2010, B. Rhoades proved that promotion together with the fake-degree polynomial associated with rectangular standard Young tableaux give an instance of the cyclic sieving phenomenon. We extend this result to all skew standard Young tableaux where the fake-degree polynomial evaluates to nonnegative integers at roots of unity, albeit without being able to specify an explicit group action. Put differently, we determine in which cases a skew character of the symmetric group carries a permutation representation of the cyclic group. We use a method proposed by N. Amini and the first author, which amounts to establishing a bound on the number of border-strip tableaux of skew shape. Finally, we apply our results to the invariant theory of tensor powers of the adjoint representation of the general linear group. In particular, we prove the existence of a bijection between permutations and J. Stembridge's alternating tableaux, which intertwines rotation and promotion.
Some classical graph problems such as finding minimal spanning tree, shortest path or maximal flow can be done efficiently. We describe slight variations of such problems which are shown to be NP-complete. Our proofs use straightforward reduction from $3$-SAT.
Given a symmetric polynomial $P$ in $2n$ variables, there exists a unique symmetric polynomial $Q$ in $n$ variables such that \[ P(x_1,\ldots,x_n,x_1^{-1},\ldots,x_n^{-1}) =Q(x_1+x_1^{-1},\ldots,x_n+x_n^{-1}). \] We denote this polynomial $Q$ by $Φ_n(P)$ and show that $Φ_n$ is an epimorphism of algebras. We compute $Φ_n(P)$ for several families of symmetric polynomials $P$: symplectic and orthogonal Schur polynomials, elementary symmetric polynomials, complete homogeneous polynomials, and power sums. Some of these formulas were already found by Elouafi (2014) and Lachaud (2016). The polynomials of the form $Φ_n(\operatorname{s}_{λ/μ}^{(2n)})$, where $\operatorname{s}_{λ/μ}^{(2n)}$ is a skew Schur polynomial in $2n$ variables, arise naturally in the study of the minors of symmetric banded Toeplitz matrices, when the generating symbol is a palindromic Laurent polynomial, and its roots can be written as $x_1,\ldots,x_n,x^{-1}_1,\ldots,x^{-1}_n$. Trench (1987) and Elouafi (2014) found efficient formulas for the determinants of symmetric banded Toeplitz matrices. We show that these formulas are equivalent to the result of Ciucu and Krattenthaler (2009) about the factorization of the characters of classical groups.
We consider Jack polynomials $J_\lambda$ and their shifted analogue $J^#_\lambda$. In 1989, Stanley conjectured that $\langle J_\mu J_\nu, J_\lambda \rangle$ is a polynomial with nonnegative coefficients in the parameter $\alpha$. In this note, we extend this conjecture to the case of shifted Jack polynomials.
We conjecture an explicit positive combinatorial formula for the expansion of unicellular LLT polynomials in the elementary symmetric basis. This is an analogue of the Shareshian-Wachs conjecture and previously studied by Panova and the author in 2018. We show that the conjecture for unicellular LLT polynomials implies a similar formula for vertical-strip LLT polynomials. We prove positivity in the elementary basis in for the class of graphs called `melting lollipops' previously considered by Huh, Nam and Yoo. This is done by proving a curious relationship between a generalization of charge and orientations of unit-interval graphs. We also provide short bijective proofs of Lee's three-term recurrences for unicellular LLT polynomials and we show that these recurrences are enough to generate all unicellular LLT polynomials associated with abelian area sequences.
We show that the classical game LaserTank is $\mathrm{NP}$-complete, even when the tank movement is restricted to a single column and the only blocks appearing on the board are mirrors and solid blocks. We show this by reducing $3$-SAT instances to LaserTank puzzles.
When $λ$ is a partition, the specialized non-symmetric Macdonald polynomial $E_λ(x;q;0)$ is symmetric and related to a modified Hall--Littlewood polynomial. We show that whenever all parts of the integer partition $λ$ is a multiple of $n$, the underlying set of fillings exhibit the cyclic sieving phenomenon (CSP) under a cyclic shift of the columns. The corresponding CSP polynomial is given by $E_λ(x;q;0)$. In addition, we prove a refined cyclic sieving phenomenon where the content of the fillings is fixed. This refinement is closely related to an earlier result by B.~Rhoades. We also introduce a skew version of $E_λ(x;q;0)$. We show that these are symmetric and Schur-positive via a variant of the Robinson--Schenstedt--Knuth correspondence and we also describe crystal raising- and lowering operators for the underlying fillings. Moreover, we show that the skew specialized non-symmetric Macdonald polynomials are in some cases vertical-strip LLT polynomials. As a consequence, we get a combinatorial Schur expansion of a new family of LLT polynomials.
In this note, we provide a short proof of Theorem 3.3 in the paper titled \emph{Crystals, semistandard tableaux and cyclic sieving phenomenon}, by Y.-T.~Oh and E.~Park, which concerns a cyclic sieving phenomenon on semi-standard Young tableaux. We also extend the result to skew shapes.
We give a $q$-enumeration of circular Dyck paths, which is a superset of the classical Dyck paths enumerated by the Catalan numbers. These objects have recently been studied by Alexandersson and Panova. Furthermore, we show that this $q$-analogue exhibits the cyclic sieving phenomenon under a natural action of the cyclic group. The enumeration and cyclic sieving is generalized to Möbius paths. We also discuss properties of a generalization of cyclic sieving, which we call subset cyclic sieving. Finally, we also introduce the notion of Lyndon-like cyclic sieving that concerns special recursive properties of combinatorial objects exhibiting the cyclic sieving phenomenon.
Demazure characters, also known as key polynomials, generalize the classical Schur polynomials. In particular, when all variables are set equal to $1$, these polynomials count the number of integer points in a certain class of Gelfand--Tsetlin polytopes. This property highlights the interaction between the corresponding polyhedral and combinatorial structures via Ehrhart theory. In this paper, we give an overview of results concerning the interplay between the geometry of Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes and their Ehrhart polynomials. Motivated by strong computer evidence, we propose several conjectures about the non-negativity of the coefficients of such polynomials.
We present positivity conjectures for the Schur expansion of Jack symmetric functions in two bases given by binomial coefficients. Partial results suggest that there are rich combinatorics to be found in these bases, including Eulerian numbers, Stirling numbers, quasi-Yamanouchi tableaux, and rook boards. These results also lead to further conjectures about the fundamental quasisymmetric expansions of these bases, which we prove for special cases.
Using the combinatorics of $α$-unimodal sets, we establish two new results in the theory of quasisymmetric functions. First, we obtain the expansion of the fundamental basis into quasisymmetric power sums. Secondly, we prove that generating functions of reverse $P$-partitions expand positively into quasisymmetric power sums. Consequently any nonnegative linear combination of such functions is $p$-positive whenever it is symmetric. As an application we derive positivity results for chromatic quasisymmetric functions, unicellular and vertical strip LLT polynomials, multivariate Tutte polynomials and the more general $B$-polynomials, matroid quasisymmetric functions, and certain Eulerian quasisymmetric functions, thus reproving and improving on numerous results in the literature.