arXiv subjects

Sergi Elizalde

Publications and source records attributed to Sergi Elizalde.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Total occurrence statistics on restricted permutations

We study the total number of occurrences of several vincular (also called generalized) patterns and other statistics, such as the major index and the Denert statistic, on permutations avoiding a pattern of length 3, extending results of Bona (2010, 2012) and Homberger (2012). In particular, for 2-3-1-avoiding permutations, we find the total number of occurrences of any vincular pattern of length 3. In some cases the answer is given by simple expressions involving binomial coefficients. The tools we use are bijections with Dyck paths, generating functions, and block decompositions of permutations.

math.CO↗

arXiv2013

Arc Permutations

Arc permutations and unimodal permutations were introduced in the study of triangulations and characters. This paper studies combinatorial properties and structures on these permutations. First, both sets are characterized by pattern avoidance. It is also shown that arc permutations carry a natural affine Weyl group action, and that the number of geodesics between a distinguished pair of antipodes in the associated Schreier graph, as well as the number of maximal chains in the weak order on unimodal permutations, are both equal to twice the number of standard Young tableaux of shifted staircase shape. Finally, a bijection from non-unimodal arc permutations to Young tableaux of certain shapes, which preserves the descent set, is described and applied to deduce a conjectured character formula of Regev.

math.CO↗

arXiv2013

Cyclic permutations realized by signed shifts

The periodic (ordinal) patterns of a map are the permutations realized by the relative order of the points in its periodic orbits. We give a combinatorial characterization of the periodic patterns of an arbitrary signed shift, in terms of the structure of the descent set of a certain cyclic permutation associated to the pattern. Signed shifts are an important family of one-dimensional dynamical systems that includes shift maps and the tent map as particular cases. Defined as a function on the set of infinite words on a finite alphabet, a signed shift deletes the first letter and, depending on its value, possibly applies the complementation operation on the remaining word. For shift maps, reverse shift maps, and the tent map, we give exact formulas for their number of periodic patterns. As a byproduct of our work, we recover results of Gessel--Reutenauer and Weiss--Rogers and obtain new enumeration formulas for pattern-avoiding cycles.

math.CO↗

arXiv2012

Inversion polynomials for 321-avoiding permutations

We prove a generalization of a conjecture of Dokos, Dwyer, Johnson, Sagan, and Selsor giving a recursion for the inversion polynomial of 321-avoiding permutations. We also answer a question they posed about finding a recursive formulas for the major index polynomial of 321-avoiding permutations. Other properties of these polynomials are investigated as well. Our tools include Dyck and 2-Motzkin paths, polyominoes, and continued fractions.

math.CO↗

arXiv2012

Pattern avoidance in matchings and partitions

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 proof of a formula of Bóna for the number of 1342-avoiding permutations. Additionally, we give a bijection proving the shape-Wilf-equivalence of the patterns 321 and 213 which greatly simplifies existing proofs by Backelin--West--Xin and Jel\'ınek, and provides an extension of work of Gouyou-Beauchamps for matchings with fixed points. Finally, we classify pairs of patterns of length 3 according to shape-Wilf-equivalence, and enumerate matchings and partitions avoiding a pair in most of the resulting equivalence classes.

math.CO↗

arXiv2012

Clusters, generating functions and asymptotics for consecutive patterns in permutations

We use the cluster method to enumerate permutations avoiding consecutive patterns. We reprove and generalize in a unified way several known results and obtain new ones, including some patterns of length 4 and 5, as well as some infinite families of patterns of a given shape. By enumerating linear extensions of certain posets, we find a differential equation satisfied by the inverse of the exponential generating function counting occurrences of the pattern. We prove that for a large class of patterns, this inverse is always an entire function. We also complete the classification of consecutive patterns of length up to 6 into equivalence classes, proving a conjecture of Nakamura. Finally, we show that the monotone pattern asymptotically dominates (in the sense that it is easiest to avoid) all non-overlapping patterns of the same length, thus proving a conjecture of Elizalde and Noy for a positive fraction of all patterns.

math.CO↗

arXiv2012

The most and the least avoided consecutive patterns

We prove that the number of permutations avoiding an arbitrary consecutive pattern of length m is asymptotically largest when the avoided pattern is 12...m, and smallest when the avoided pattern is 12...(m-2)m(m-1). This settles a conjecture of the author and Noy from 2001, as well as another recent conjecture of Nakamura. We also show that among non-overlapping patterns of length m, the pattern 134...m2 is the one for which the number of permutations avoiding it is asymptotically largest.

math.CO↗

arXiv2012

Descent sets of cyclic permutations

We present a bijection between cyclic permutations of {1,2,...,n+1} and permutations of {1,2,...,n} that preserves the descent set of the first n entries and the set of weak excedances. This non-trivial bijection involves a Foata-like transformation on the cyclic notation of the permutation, followed by certain conjugations. We also give an alternate derivation of the consequent result about the equidistribution of descent sets using work of Gessel and Reutenauer. Finally, we prove a conjecture of the author in [SIAM J. Discrete Math. 23 (2009), 765-786] and a conjecture of Eriksen, Freij and Wästlund.

math.CO↗

arXiv2010

Permutations and beta-shifts

Given a real number beta>1, a permutation pi of length n is realized by the beta-shift if there is some x in [0,1] such that the relative order of the sequence x,f(x),...,f^{n-1}(x), where f(x) is the factional part of beta*x, is the same as that of the entries of pi. Widely studied from such diverse fields as number theory and automata theory, beta-shifts are prototypical examples one-dimensional chaotic dynamical systems. When beta is an integer, permutations realized by shifts where studied in [SIAM J. Discrete Math. 23 (2009), 765-786]. In this paper we generalize some of the results to arbitrary beta-shifts. We describe a method to compute, for any given permutation pi, the smallest beta such that pi is realized by the beta-shift. We also give a way to determine the length of the shortest forbidden (i.e., not realized) pattern of an arbitrary beta-shift.

math.CO↗

arXiv2009

Restricted simsun permutations

A permutation is simsun if for all k, the subword of the one-line notation consisting of the k smallest entries does not have three consecutive decreasing elements. Simsun permutations were introduced by Simion and Sundaram, who showed that they are counted by the Euler numbers. In this paper we enumerate simsun permutations avoiding a pattern or a set of patterns of length 3. The results involve Motkzin, Fibonacci, and secondary structure numbers. The techniques in the proofs include generating functions, bijections into lattice paths and generating trees.

math.CO↗

arXiv2009

Cycle up-down permutations

A permutation is defined to be cycle-up-down if it is a product of cycles that, when written starting with their smallest element, have an up-down pattern. We prove bijectively and analytically that these permutations are enumerated by the Euler numbers, and we study the distribution of some statistics on them, as well as on up-down permutations, on all permutations, and on a generalization of cycle-up-down permutations. The statistics include the number of cycles of even and odd length, the number of left-to-right minima, and the number of extreme elements.

math.CO↗

arXiv2009

On basic forbidden patterns of functions

The allowed patterns of a map on a one-dimensional interval are those permutations that are realized by the relative order of the elements in its orbits. The set of allowed patterns is completely determined by the minimal patterns that are not allowed. These are called basic forbidden patterns. In this paper we study basic forbidden patterns of several functions. We show that the logistic map L_r(x)=rx(1-x) and some generalizations have infinitely many of them for 1<r<=4, and we give a lower bound on the number of basic forbidden patterns of L_4 of each length. Next, we give an upper bound on the length of the shortest forbidden pattern of a piecewise monotone map. Finally, we provide some necessary conditions for a set of permutations to be the set of basic forbidden patterns of such a map.

math.CO↗

arXiv2009

The number of permutations realized by a shift

A permutation p is realized by the shift on N symbols if there is an infinite word on an N-letter alphabet whose successive left shifts by one position are lexicographically in the same relative order as p. The set of realized permutations is closed under consecutive pattern containment. Permutations that cannot be realized are called forbidden patterns. It was shown in [Amigo, Elizalde, Kennel, J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 115 (2008) 485-504] that the shortest forbidden patterns of the shift on N symbols have length N+2. In this paper we give a characterization of the set of permutations that are realized by the shift on N symbols, and we enumerate them according to their length.

math.CO↗

arXiv2009

Improved bounds on the number of numerical semigroups of a given genus

We improve the previously best known lower and upper bounds on the number n_g of numerical semigroups of genus g. Starting from a known recursive description of the tree T of numerical semigroups, we analyze some of its properties and use them to construct approximations of T by generating trees whose nodes are labeled by certain parameters of the semigroups. We then translate the succession rules of these trees into functional equations for the generating functions that enumerate their nodes, and solve these equations to obtain the bounds. Some of our bounds involve the Fibonacci numbers, and the others are expressed as generating functions. We also give upper bounds on the number of numerical semigroups having an infinite number of descendants in T.

math.CO↗

arXiv2009

The largest and the smallest fixed points of permutations

We give a new interpretation of the derangement numbers d_n as the sum of the values of the largest fixed points of all non-derangements of length n-1. We also show that the analogous sum for the smallest fixed points equals the number of permutations of length n with at least two fixed points. We provide analytic and bijective proofs of both results, as well as a new recurrence for the derangement numbers.

math.CO↗

arXiv2008

Sorting by Placement and Shift

In sorting situations where the final destination of each item is known, it is natural to repeatedly choose items and place them where they belong, allowing the intervening items to shift by one to make room. (In fact, a special case of this algorithm is commonly used to hand-sort files.) However, it is not obvious that this algorithm necessarily terminates. We show that in fact the algorithm terminates after at most $2^{n-1}-1$ steps in the worst case (confirming a conjecture of L. Larson), and that there are super-exponentially many permutations for which this exact bound can be achieved. The proof involves a curious symmetrical binary representation.

math.CO↗

arXiv2007

The $X$-class and almost-increasing permutations

In this paper we give a bijection between the class of permutations that can be drawn on an X-shape and a certain set of permutations that appears in [Knuth] in connection to sorting algorithms. A natural generalization of this set leads us to the definition of almost-increasing permutations, which is a one-parameter family of permutations that can be characterized in terms of forbidden patterns. We find generating functions for almost-increasing permutations by using their cycle structure to map them to colored Motzkin paths. We also give refined enumerations with respect to the number of cycles, fixed points, excedances, and inversions.

math.CO↗

arXiv2007

Forbidden patterns and shift systems

The scope of this paper is two-fold. First, to present to the researchers in combinatorics an interesting implementation of permutations avoiding generalized patterns in the framework of discrete-time dynamical systems. Indeed, the orbits generated by piecewise monotone maps on one-dimensional intervals have forbidden order patterns, i.e., order patterns that do not occur in any orbit. The allowed patterns are then those patterns avoiding the so-called forbidden root patterns and their shifted patterns. The second scope is to study forbidden patterns in shift systems, which are universal models in information theory, dynamical systems and stochastic processes. Due to its simple structure, shift systems are accessible to a more detailed analysis and, at the same time, exhibit all important properties of low-dimensional chaotic dynamical systems (e.g., sensitivity to initial conditions, strong mixing and a dense set of periodic points), allowing to export the results to other dynamical systems via order-isomorphisms.

math.DS↗