arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Vincent Vatter.
We study sorting machines consisting of a stack and a pop stack in series, with or without a queue between them. While there are, a priori, four such machines, only two are essentially different: a pop stack followed directly by a stack, and a pop stack followed by a queue and then by a stack. In the former case, we obtain complete answers for the basis and enumeration of the sortable permutations. In the latter case, we present several conjectures.
The simple permutations in two permutation classes --- the 321-avoiding permutations and the skew-merged permutations --- are enumerated using a uniform method. In both cases, these enumerations were known implicitly, by working backwards from the enumeration of the class, but the simple permutations had not been enumerated explicitly. In particular, the enumeration of the simple skew-merged permutations leads to the first truly structural enumeration of this class as a whole. The extension of this method to a wider collection of classes namely grid classes of infinite paths is discussed.
Infinite antichains of permutations have long been used to construct interesting permutation classes and counterexamples. We prove the existence and detail the construction of infinite antichains with arbitrarily large growth rates. As a consequence, we show that every proper permutation class is contained in a class with a rational generating function. While this result implies the conclusion of the Marcus-Tardos theorem, that theorem is used in our proof.
We enumerate three specific permutation classes defined by two forbidden patterns of length four. The techniques involve inflations of geometric grid classes.
Geometric grid classes and the substitution decomposition have both been shown to be fundamental in the understanding of the structure of permutation classes. In particular, these are the two main tools in the recent classification of permutation classes of growth rate less than $κ\approx2.20557$ (a specific algebraic integer at which infinite antichains begin to appear). Using language- and order-theoretic methods, we prove that the substitution closures of geometric grid classes are partially well-ordered, finitely based, and that all their subclasses have algebraic generating functions. We go on to show that the inflation of a geometric grid class by a strongly rational class is partially well-ordered, and that all its subclasses have rational generating functions. This latter fact allows us to conclude that every permutation class with growth rate less than $κ$ has a rational generating function. This bound is tight as there are permutation classes with growth rate $κ$ which have nonrational generating functions.
A geometric grid class consists of those permutations that can be drawn on a specified set of line segments of slope \pm1 arranged in a rectangular pattern governed by a matrix. Using a mixture of geometric and language theoretic methods, we prove that such classes are specified by finite sets of forbidden permutations, are partially well ordered, and have rational generating functions. Furthermore, we show that these properties are inherited by the subclasses (under permutation involvement) of such classes, and establish the basic lattice theoretic properties of the collection of all such subclasses.
A poset is {\it $(\3+\1)$-free} if it contains no induced subposet isomorphic to the disjoint union of a 3-element chain and a 1-element chain. These posets are of interest because of their connection with interval orders and their appearance in the $(\3+\1)$-free Conjecture of Stanley and Stembridge. The dimension 2 posets $P$ are exactly the ones which have an associated permutation $π$ where $i\prec j$ in $P$ if and only if $i<j$ as integers and $i$ comes before $j$ in the one-line notation of $π$. So we say that a permutation $π$ is {\it $(\3+\1)$-free} or {\it $(\3+\1)$-avoiding} if its poset is $(\3+\1)$-free. This is equivalent to $π$ avoiding the permutations 2341 and 4123 in the language of pattern avoidance. We give a complete structural characterization of such permutations. This permits us to find their generating function.
In 1973, Katona raised the problem of determining the maximum number of subsets in a separating cover on n elements. The answer to Katona's question turns out to be the inverse to the answer to a much simpler question: what is the largest integer which is the product of positive integers with sum n? We give a combinatorial explanation for this relationship, via Moon and Moser's answer to a question of Erdos: how many maximal independent sets can a graph on n vertices have? We conclude by showing how Moon and Moser's solution also sheds light on a problem of Mahler and Popken's about the complexity of integers.
A monotone grid class is a permutation class (i.e., a downset of permutations under the containment order) defined by local monotonicity conditions. We give a simplified proof of a result of Murphy and Vatter that monotone grid classes of forests are partially well-ordered.
We prove that all subclasses of the separable permutations not containing Av(231) or a symmetry of this class have rational generating functions. Our principal tools are partial well-order, atomicity, and the theory of strongly rational permutation classes introduced here for the first time.
We describe a practical algorithm which computes the accepting automaton for the insertion encoding of a permutation class, whenever this insertion encoding is regular. This algorithm is implemented in the accompanying Maple package INSENC, which can automatically compute the rational generating functions for such classes.
We prove that there are permutation classes (hereditary properties of permutations) of every growth rate (Stanley-Wilf limit) at least λ\approx 2.48187, the unique real root of x^5-2x^4-2x^2-2x-1, thereby establishing a conjecture of Albert and Linton.
Answering a question of Cameron, Pretzel and Siemons proved that every integer partition of $n\ge 2(k+3)(k+1)$ can be reconstructed from its set of $k$-deletions. We describe a new reconstruction algorithm that lowers this bound to $n\ge k^2+2k$ and present examples showing that this bound is best possible.
We consider the problem of reconstructing compositions of an integer from their subcompositions, which was raised by Raykova (albeit disguised as a question about layered permutations). We show that every composition w of n\ge 3k+1 can be reconstructed from its set of k-deletions, i.e., the set of all compositions of n-k contained in w. As there are compositions of 3k with the same set of k-deletions, this result is best possible.
A simple permutation is one that does not map a nontrivial interval onto an interval. It was recently proved by Albert and Atkinson that a permutation class with only finitely simple permutations has an algebraic generating function. We extend this result to enumerate permutations in such a class satisfying additional properties, e.g., the even permutations, the involutions, the permutations avoiding generalised permutations, and so on.
We introduce and characterise grid classes, which are natural generalisations of other well-studied permutation classes. This characterisation allows us to give a new, short proof of the Fibonacci dichotomy: the number of permutations of length n in a permutation class is either at least as large as the nth Fibonacci number or is eventually polynomial.
Zeilberger's enumeration schemes can be used to completely automate the enumeration of many permutation classes. We extend his enumeration schemes so that they apply to many more permutation classes and describe the Maple package WILFPLUS, which implements this process. We also compare enumeration schemes to three other systematic enumeration techniques: generating trees, substitution decompositions, and the insertion encoding.
We determine the Möbius function of the poset of compositions of an integer. In fact we give two proofs of this formula, one using an involution and one involving discrete Morse theory. The composition poset turns out to be intimately connected with subword order, whose Möbius function was determined by Björner. We show that using a generalization of subword order, we can obtain both Björner's results and our own as special cases.