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Toufik Mansour

Publications and source records attributed to Toufik Mansour.

141 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

Finite automata and pattern avoidance in words

We say that a word $w$ on a totally ordered alphabet avoids the word $v$ if there are no subsequences in $w$ order-equivalent to $v$. In this paper we suggest a new approach to the enumeration of words on at most $k$ letters avoiding a given pattern. By studying an automaton which for fixed $k$ generates the words avoiding a given pattern we derive several previously known results for these kind of problems, as well as many new. In particular, we give a simple proof of the formula \cite{Reg1998} for exact asymptotics for the number of words on $k$ letters of length $n$ that avoids the pattern $12...(\ell+1)$. Moreover, we give the first combinatorial proof of the exact formula \cite{Burstein} for the number of words on $k$ letters of length $n$ avoiding a three letter permutation pattern.

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Restricted even permutations and Chebyshev polynomials

We study generating functions for the number of even (odd) permutations on n letters avoiding 132 and an arbitrary permutation $τ$ on k letters, or containing $τ$ exactly once. In several interesting cases the generating function depends only on k and is expressed via Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind.

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A note on sum of k-th power of Horadam's sequence

Let $w_{n+2}=pw_{n+1}+qw_{n}$ for $n\geq0$ with $w_0=a$ and $w_1=b$. In this paper we find an explicit expression, in terms of determinants, for $\sum_{n\geq0} w_n^kx^n$ for any $k\geq1$. As a consequence, we derive all the previously known results for this kind of problems, as well as many new results.

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231-Avoiding Involutions and Fibonacci Numbers

We use combinatorial and generating function techniques to enumerate various sets of involutions which avoid 231 or contain 231 exactly once. Interestingly, many of these enumerations can be given in terms of $k$-generalized Fibonacci numbers.

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Permutations Which Avoid 1243 and 2143, Continued Fractions, and Chebyshev Polynomials

Several authors have examined connections between permutations which avoid 132, continued fractions, and Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind. In this paper we prove analogues of some of these results for permutations which avoid 1243 and 2143. Using tools developed to prove these analogues, we give enumerations and generating functions for permutations which avoid 1243, 2143, and certain additional patterns. We also give generating functions for permutations which avoid 1243 and 2143 and contain certain additional patterns exactly once. In all cases we express these generating functions in terms of Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind.

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132-avoiding Two-stack Sortable Permutations, Fibonacci Numbers, and Pell Numbers

In 1990 West conjectured that there are $2(3n)!/((n+1)!(2n+1)!)$ two-stack sortable permutations on $n$ letters. This conjecture was proved analytically by Zeilberger in 1992. Later, Dulucq, Gire, and Guibert gave a combinatorial proof of this conjecture. In the present paper we study generating functions for the number of two-stack sortable permutations on $n$ letters avoiding (or containing exactly once) 132 and avoiding (or containing exactly once) an arbitrary permutation $τ$ on $k$ letters. In several interesting cases this generating function can be expressed in terms of the generating function for the Fibonacci numbers or the generating function for the Pell numbers.

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Restricted Permutations, Fibonacci Numbers, and k-generalized Fibonacci Numbers

A permutation $π\in S_n$ is said to {\it avoid} a permutation $σ\in S_k$ whenever $π$ contains no subsequence with all of the same pairwise comparisons as $σ$. For any set $R$ of permutations, we write $S_n(R)$ to denote the set of permutations in $S_n$ which avoid every permutation in $R$. In 1985 Simion and Schmidt showed that $|S_n(132, 213, 123)|$ is equal to the Fibonacci number $F_{n+1}$. In this paper we generalize this result in several ways. We first use a result of Mansour to show that for any permutation $τ$ in a certain infinite family of permutations, $|S_n(132, 213, τ)|$ is given in terms of Fibonacci numbers or $k$-generalized Fibonacci numbers. In many cases we give explicit enumerations, which we prove bijectively. We then use generating function techniques to show that for any permutation $γ$ in a second infinite family of permutations, $|S_n(123, 132, γ)|$ is also given in terms of Fibonacci numbers or $k$-generalized Fibonacci numbers. In many cases we give explicit enumerations, some of which we prove bijectively. We go on to use generating function techniques to show that for any permutation $ω$ in a third infinite family of permutations, $|S_n(132, 2341, ω)|$ is given in terms of Fibonacci numbers, and for any permutation $μ$ in a fourth infinite family of permutations, $|S_n(132, 3241, μ)|$ is given in terms of Fibonacci numbers and $k$-generalized Fibonacci numbers. In several cases we give explicit enumerations. We conclude by giving an infinite class of examples of a set $R$ of permutations for which $|S_n(R)|$ satisfies a linear homogeneous recurrence relation with constant coefficients.

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Words restricted by patterns with at most 2 distinct letters

We find generating functions for the number of words avoiding certain patterns or sets of patterns on at most 2 distinct letters and determine which of them are equally avoided. We also find the exact number of words avoiding certain patterns and provide bijective proofs for the resulting formulas.

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Counting occurrences of a pattern of type (1,2) or (2,1) in permutations

Babson and Steingr\'ımsson introduced generalized permutation patterns that allow the requirement that two adjacent letters in a pattern must be adjacent in the permutation. Claesson presented a complete solution for the number of permutations avoiding any single pattern of type $(1,2)$ or $(2,1)$. For eight of these twelve patterns the answer is given by the Bell numbers. For the remaining four the answer is given by the Catalan numbers. With respect to being equidistributed there are three different classes of patterns of type $(1,2)$ or $(2,1)$. We present a recursion for the number of permutations containing exactly one occurrence of a pattern of the first or the second of the aforementioned classes, and we also find an ordinary generating function for these numbers. We prove these results both combinatorially and analytically. Finally, we give the distribution of any pattern of the third class in the form of a continued fraction, and we also give explicit formulas for the number of permutations containing exactly $r$ occurrences of a pattern of the third class when $r\in\{1,2,3\}$.

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Counting occurences of 132 in a permutation

We study the generating function for the number of permutations on n letters containing exactly $r\gs0$ occurences of 132. It is shown that finding this function for a given r amounts to a routine check of all permutations in $S_{2r}$.

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Avoiding maximal parabolic subgroups of S_k

We find an explicit expression for the generating function of the number of permutations in S_n avoiding a subgroup of S_k generated by all but one simple transpositions. The generating function turns out to be rational, and its denominator is a rook polynomial for a rectangular board.

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