Let \({\mathfrak {S}}_{[i,j]}\) be the subgroup of the symmetric group \({\mathfrak {S}}_n\) generated by adjacent transpositions \((i,i+1), \dotsc , (j-1,j)\), assuming \(1 \le i < j \le n\). We give a combinatorial rule for evaluating induced sign characters of the type A Hecke algebra \(H_n(q)\) at all elements of the form \(\sum _{w \in {\mathfrak {S}}_{[i,j]}} T_w\) and at all products of such

In this paper, we study concave compositions, an extension of partitions that were considered by Andrews, Rhoades, and Zwegers. They presented several open problems regarding the statistical structure of concave compositions including the distribution of the perimeter and tilt, the number of summands, and the shape of the graph of a typical concave composition. We present solutions to these problems

For positive integers \(L \ge 3\) and s, Berkovich and Uncu (Ann Comb 23:263–284, 2019) conjectured an inequality between the sizes of two closely related sets of partitions whose parts lie in the interval \(\{s, \ldots , L+s\}\). Further restrictions are placed on the sets by specifying impermissible parts as well as a minimum part. The authors proved their conjecture for the cases \(s=1\) and \(s=2\)

Partitions, the partition function p(n), and the hook lengths of their Ferrers–Young diagrams are important objects in combinatorics, number theory, and representation theory. For positive integers n and t, we study \(p_t^\mathrm{e}(n)\) (resp. \(p_t^\mathrm{o}(n)\)), the number of partitions of n with an even (resp. odd) number of t-hooks. We study the limiting behavior of the ratio \(p_t^\mathrm{e}(n)/p(n)\)

In their study of the equivariant K-theory of the generalized flag varieties G/P, where G is a complex semisimple Lie group, and P is a parabolic subgroup of G, Lenart and Postnikov introduced a combinatorial tool, called the alcove path model. It provides a model for the highest weight crystals with dominant integral highest weights, generalizing the model by semistandard Young tableaux. In this paper

We study the nature of the generating series of some models of walks with small steps in the three quarter plane. More precisely, we restrict ourselves to the situation where the group is infinite, the kernel has genus one, and the step set is diagonally symmetric (i.e., with no steps in anti-diagonal directions). In that situation, after a transformation of the plane, we derive a quadrant-like functional

Motivated by the notion of chip-firing on the dual graph of a planar graph, we consider ‘integral flow chip-firing’ on an arbitrary graph G. The chip-firing rule is governed by \({\mathcal {L}}^*(G)\), the dual Laplacian of G determined by choosing a basis for the lattice of integral flows on G. We show that any graph admits such a basis so that \({\mathcal {L}}^*(G)\) is an M-matrix, leading to a

Tree balance plays an important role in different research areas like theoretical computer science and mathematical phylogenetics. For example, it has long been known that under the Yule model, a pure birth process, imbalanced trees are more likely than balanced ones. Also, concerning ordered search trees, more balanced ones allow for more efficient data structuring than imbalanced ones. Therefore

We construct examples and families of locally Hermitian ovoids of the generalized quadrangle \(H(3,q^2)\). We also obtain a computer classification of all locally Hermitian ovoids of \(H(3,q^2)\) for \(q \le 4\), and compare the obtained classification for \(q=3\) with the classification of all ovoids of H(3, 9) which is also obtained by computer.

We prove exact product formulas for the tiling generating functions of various halved hexagons and quartered hexagons with defects on boundary. Our results generalize the previous work of the first author and the work of Ciucu.

Conway and Gordon proved that for every spatial complete graph on six vertices, the sum of the linking numbers over all of the constituent two-component links is odd, and Kazakov and Korablev proved that for every spatial complete graph with arbitrary number of vertices greater than six, the sum of the linking numbers over all of the constituent two-component Hamiltonian links is even. In this paper

Following Babai’s algorithm (Graph isomorphism in quasipolynomial time, arXiv:1512.03547v2, 2016) for the string isomorphism problem, we determine that it is possible to write expressions of short length describing certain permutation cosets, including all permutation subgroups. This is feasible both in the original version of the algorithm and in its CFSG-free version, by Babai (2016, §13.1) and Pyber

A coloring of the integers is nonrepetitive if no two adjacent intervals have the same color sequence. A beautiful theorem of Thue asserts that there exists a nonrepetitive coloring of \({\mathbb {N}}\) using only three colors. We obtain some generalizations of this result in which the adjacency of intervals is specified by more general graphs. We focus on the list variant of the problem, in which

We study f-vectors, which are the maximal degree vectors of F-polynomials in cluster algebra theory. For a cluster algebra of finite type, we find that positive f-vectors correspond with d-vectors, which are exponent vectors of denominators of cluster variables. Furthermore, using this correspondence and properties of d-vectors, we prove that cluster variables in a cluster are uniquely determined by

Using the theory of Properly Embedded Graphs developed in an earlier work we define an involutory duality on the set of labeled non-crossing trees that lifts the obvious duality in the set of unlabeled non-crossing trees. The set of non-crossing trees is a free ternary magma with one generator and this duality is an instance of a duality that is defined in any such magma. Any two free ternary magmas

Ordering permutations by containment of inversion sets yields a fascinating partial order on the symmetric group: the weak order. This partial order is, among other things, a semidistributive lattice. As a consequence, every permutation has a canonical representation as a join of other permutations. Combinatorially, these canonical join representations can be modeled in terms of arc diagrams. Moreover

We give a commutative algebra viewpoint on Andrews recursive formula for the partitions appearing in Gordon’s identities, which are a generalization of Rogers–Ramanujan identities. Using this approach and differential ideals, we conjecture a family of partition identities which extend Gordon’s identities. This family is indexed by \(r\ge 2.\) We prove the conjecture for \(r=2\) and \(r=3.\)

Pairs of graded graphs, together with the Fomin property of graded graph duality, are rich combinatorial structures providing among other a framework for enumeration. The prototypical example is the one of the Young graded graph of integer partitions, allowing us to connect number of standard Young tableaux and numbers of permutations. Here, we use operads, algebraic devices abstracting the notion

The determinantal identities of Hamel and Goulden have recently been shown to apply to a tableau-based ninth variation of skew Schur functions. Here we extend this approach and its results to the analogous tableau-based ninth variation of supersymmetric skew Schur functions. These tableaux are built on entries taken from an alphabet of unprimed and primed numbers and that may be ordered in a myriad

We provide some first experimental data about generating functions of restricted lattice walks with small steps in \({\mathbb {N}}^4\).

Inspired by Qiu and Wilson (J Combin Theory Ser A 175:105271, 2020) and D’Adderio et al. (Eur J Combin 81:58–83, 2019), we formulate a generalised Delta square conjecture (valley version). Furthermore, we use similar techniques as in Haglund and Sergel (Schedules and the delta conjecture, arXiv:1908.04732, 2019) to obtain a schedule formula for the combinatorics of our conjecture. We then use this

We obtain q-analogues of several series for powers of \(\pi \). For example, the identity $$\begin{aligned} \mathop {\sum }\limits _{k=0}^\infty \frac{(-1)^k}{(2k+1)^3}=\frac{\pi ^3}{32} \end{aligned}$$ has the following q-analogue: $$\begin{aligned} \mathop {\sum }\limits _{k=0}^\infty (-1)^k\frac{q^{2k}(1+q^{2k+1})}{(1-q^{2k+1})^3}=\frac{(q^2;q^4)_{\infty }^2(q^4;q^4)_{\infty }^6}{(q;q^2)_{\infty

The study of a variation of the marking game, in which the first player marks vertices and the second player marks edges of an undirected graph was proposed by Bartnicki et al. (Electron J Combin 15:R72, 2008). In this game, the goal of the second player is to mark as many edges around an unmarked vertex as possible, while the first player wants just the opposite. In this paper, we prove various bounds

Let \(\gamma (G)\) and \(\gamma _{t}(G)\) be the domination number and the total domination number of a graph G, respectively, and let \(\gamma _g(G)\) and \(\gamma _{tg}(G)\) be the game domination number and the game total domination number of G, respectively. Then, G is \(\gamma _g\)-perfect (resp. \(\gamma _{tg}\)-perfect) if every induced subgraph F of G satisfies \(\gamma _g(F)=\gamma (F)\) (resp

Let G be a finite simple graph on n vertices, that contains no isolated vertices, and let \(I(G) \subseteq S = K[x_1, \dots , x_n]\) be its edge ideal. In this paper, we study the pair of integers that measure the projective dimension and the regularity of S/I(G). We show that if \({{\,\mathrm{pd}\,}}(S/I(G))\) attains its minimum possible value \(2\sqrt{n}-2\) then, with only one exception, \({{\

For a positive integer d, a non-negative integer n and a non-negative integer \(h\le n\), we study the number \(C_{n}^{(d)}\) of principal ideals; and the number \(C_{n,h}^{(d)}\) of principal ideals generated by an element of rank h, in the d-tonal partition monoid on n elements. We compute closed forms for the first family, as partial cumulative sums of known sequences. The second gives an infinite

The classical coinvariant ring \(R_n\) is defined as the quotient of a polynomial ring in n variables by the positive-degree \(S_n\)-invariants. It has a known basis that respects the decomposition of \(R_n\) into irreducible \(S_n\)-modules, consisting of the higher Specht polynomials due to Ariki, Terasoma, and Yamada (Hiroshima Math J 27(1):177–188, 1997). We provide an extension of the higher Specht

We introduce a metric on the set of permutations of given order, which is a weighted generalization of Kendall’s \(\tau \) rank distance and study its properties. Using the edge graph of a permutohedron, we give a criterion which guarantees that a permutation lies metrically between another two fixed permutations. In addition, the conditions under which four points from the resulting metric space form

In a recent preprint, Carlsson and Oblomkov (Affine Schubert calculus and double coinvariants. arXiv preprint 1801.09033, 2018) obtain a long sought-after monomial basis for the ring \(\mathrm{D}\!\mathrm{R}_n\) of diagonal coinvariants. Their basis is closely related to the “schedules” formula for the Hilbert series of \(\mathrm{D}\!\mathrm{R}_n\) which was conjectured by the first author and Loehr

We define and study odd and even analogues of the major index statistics for the classical Weyl groups. More precisely, we show that the generating functions of these statistics, twisted by the one-dimensional characters of the corresponding groups, always factor in an explicit way. In particular, we obtain odd and even analogues of Carlitz’s identity, of the Gessel–Simion Theorem, and a parabolic

The main idea of this paper is to provide an algebraic algorithm for constructing symmetric graphs with optimal fault tolerance. For this purpose, we use normal edge-transitive Cayley graphs and the idea of reconstruction question posed by Praeger to present a special factorization of groups which induces a graphical decomposition of normal edge-transitive Cayley graphs to simpler normal edge-transitive

Lock polynomials and lock tableaux are natural analogues to key polynomials and Kohnert tableaux, respectively. In this paper, we compare lock polynomials to the much-studied key polynomials and give an explicit description of a crystal structure on lock tableaux. Furthermore, we construct an injective, weight-preserving map from lock tableaux to Kohnert tableaux that intertwines with their respective

The q, t-Catalan number \({{\,\mathrm{Cat}\,}}_n(q,t)\) enumerates integer partitions contained in an \(n\times n\) triangle by their dinv and external area statistics. The paper by Lee et al. (SIAM J Discr Math 32:191–232, 2018) proposed a new approach to understanding the symmetry property \({{\,\mathrm{Cat}\,}}_n(q,t)={{\,\mathrm{Cat}\,}}_n(t,q)\) based on decomposing the set of all integer partitions

A power series is called lacunary if “almost all” of its coefficients are zero. Integer partitions have motivated the classification of lacunary specializations of Han’s extension of the Nekrasov–Okounkov formula. More precisely, we consider the modular forms $$\begin{aligned}F_{a,b,c}(z) :=\frac{\eta (24az)^a \eta (24acz)^{b-a}}{\eta (24z)},\end{aligned}$$ defined in terms of the Dedekind \(\eta \)-function

The Eulerian polynomial \( \mathrm {AExc}_n(t)\) enumerating excedances in the symmetric group \(\mathfrak {S}_n\) is known to be gamma positive for all n. When enumeration is done over the type B and type D Coxeter groups, the type B and type D Eulerian polynomials are also gamma positive for all n. We consider \( \mathrm {AExc}_n^+(t)\) and \( \mathrm {AExc}_n^-(t)\), the polynomials which enumerate

The regularity \({\text {reg}}R(I(G))\) of the Rees ring R(I(G)) of the edge ideal I(G) of a finite simple graph G is studied. It is shown that, if R(I(G)) is normal, one has \({\text {mat}}(G) \le {\text {reg}}R(I(G)) \le {\text {mat}}(G) + 1\), where \({\text {mat}}(G)\) is the matching number of G. In general, the induced matching number is a lower bound for the regularity, which can be shown by

For a given marked surface (S, M) and a fixed tagged triangulation T of (S, M), we show that each tagged triangulation \(T'\) of (S, M) is uniquely determined by the intersection numbers of tagged arcs of T and tagged arcs of \(T'\). As a consequence, each cluster in the cluster algebra \({{\,\mathrm{{\mathcal {A}}}\,}}(T)\) is uniquely determined by its F-matrix which is a new numerical invariant

We generalize chain enumeration in graded partially ordered sets by relaxing the graded, poset and Eulerian requirements. The resulting balanced digraphs, which include the classical Eulerian posets having an R-labeling, imply the existence of the (non-homogeneous) \(\mathbf{c}\mathbf{d}\)-index, a key invariant for studying inequalities for the flag vector of polytopes. Mirroring Alexander duality

In this paper, we investigate a generalization of the Bessenrodt–Ono inequality by following Gian–Carlo Rota’s advice in studying problems in combinatorics and number theory in terms of roots of polynomials. We consider the number of k-colored partitions of n as special values of polynomials \(P_n(x)\). We prove for all real numbers \(x >2 \) and \(a,b \in \mathbb {N}\) with \(a+b >2\) the inequality:

Polymatroids can be considered as “fractional matroids” where the rank function is not required to be integer valued. Many, but not every notion in matroid terminology translates naturally to polymatroids. Defining cyclic flats of a polymatroid carefully, the characterization by Bonin and de Mier of the ranked lattice of cyclic flats carries over to polymatroids. The main tool, which might be of independent

We define a new basis of the algebra of quasi-symmetric functions by lifting the cycle-index polynomials of symmetric groups to noncommutative polynomials with coefficients in the algebra of free quasi-symmetric functions, and then projecting the coefficients to QSym. By duality, we obtain a basis of noncommutative symmetric functions, for which a product formula and a recurrence in the form of a combinatorial

The Lucas sequence is a sequence of polynomials in s, t defined recursively by \(\{0\}=0\), \(\{1\}=1\), and \(\{n\}=s\{n-1\}+t\{n-2\}\) for \(n\ge 2\). On specialization of s and t one can recover the Fibonacci numbers, the nonnegative integers, and the q-integers \([n]_q\). Given a quantity which is expressed in terms of products and quotients of nonnegative integers, one obtains a Lucas analogue

By an oval in \({\mathbb {Z}}^2_{2p},\)p odd prime, we mean a set of \(2p+2\) points, such that no three of them are on a line. It is shown that ovals in \({\mathbb {Z}}^2_{2p}\) only exist for \(p=3,5\) and they are unique up to an isomorphism.

An inversion triple of an element w of a simply laced Coxeter group W is a set \(\{ \alpha , \beta , \alpha + \beta \}\), where each element is a positive root sent negative by w. We say that an inversion triple of w is contractible if there is a root sequence for w in which the roots of the triple appear consecutively. Such triples arise in the study of the commutation classes of reduced expressions

Recently it was shown that, if the subtree and chain reduction rules have been applied exhaustively to two unrooted phylogenetic trees, the reduced trees will have at most \(15k-9\) taxa where k is the TBR (Tree Bisection and Reconnection) distance between the two trees, and that this bound is tight. Here, we propose five new reduction rules and show that these further reduce the bound to \(11k-9\)

Kostant’s partition function is a vector partition function that counts the number of ways one can express a weight of a Lie algebra \(\mathfrak {g}\) as a nonnegative integral linear combination of the positive roots of \(\mathfrak {g}\). Multiplex juggling sequences are generalizations of juggling sequences that specify an initial and terminal configuration of balls and allow for multiple balls at

Weights of permutations were originally introduced by Dugan et al. (Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A 164:24–49, 2019) in their study of the combinatorics of tiered trees. Given a permutation \(\sigma \) viewed as a sequence of integers, computing the weight of \(\sigma \) involves recursively counting descents of certain subpermutations of \(\sigma \). Using this weight function, one can define

Mixed graphs can be seen as digraphs that have both arcs and edges (or digons, that is, two opposite arcs). In this paper, we consider the case where such graphs are Cayley graphs of abelian groups. Such groups can be constructed using a generalization to \(\mathbb {Z}^n\) of the concept of congruence in \(\mathbb {Z}\). Here we use this approach to present some families of mixed graphs, which, for

We present new applications of q-binomials, also known as Gaussian binomial coefficients. Our main theorems determine cardinalities of certain error-correcting codes based on Varshamov–Tenengolts codes and prove a curious phenomenon relating to deletion spheres.

Ramanujan’s modular equations of degrees 3, 5, 7, 11 and 23 yield beautiful colored partition identities. Warnaar analytically generalized the modular equations of degrees 3 and 7, and thereafter, the author found bijective proofs of those partitions identities and recently, established an analytic generalization of the modular equations of degrees 5, 11 and 23. The partition identities of degrees

A matroid is Gorenstein if its toric variety is. Hibi, Lasoń, Matsuda, Michałek, and Vodička provided a full graph-theoretic classification of Gorenstein matroids associated to simple graphs. We extend this classification to multigraphs.

Let \({{\mathfrak {S}}}_n\) be the nth symmetric group. Given a set of permutations \(\Pi \), we denote by \({{\mathfrak {S}}}_n(\Pi )\) the set of permutations in \({{\mathfrak {S}}}_n\) which avoid \(\Pi \) in the sense of pattern avoidance. Consider the generating function \(Q_n(\Pi )=\sum _\sigma F_{{{\,\mathrm{Des}\,}}\sigma }\) where the sum is over all \(\sigma \in {{\mathfrak {S}}}_n(\Pi )\)

The Deodhar decomposition of the Grassmannian is a refinement of the Schubert, Richardson, and positroid stratifications of the Grassmannian. Go-diagrams are certain fillings of Ferrers diagrams with black stones, white stones, and pluses which index Deodhar components in the Grassmannian. We provide a series of corrective flips on diagrams which may be used to transform arbitrary fillings of Ferrers

In this paper, we utilize the machinery of cluster algebras, quiver mutations, and brane tilings to study a variety of historical enumerative combinatorics questions all under one roof. Previous work (Zhang in Cluster variables and perfect matchings of subgraphs of the \(dP_{3}\) lattice, http://www.math.umn.edu/~reiner/REU/Zhang2012.pdf. arXiv:1511.0655, 2012; Leoni et al. in J Phys A Math Theor 47:474011

The Murnaghan–Nakayama rule is a combinatorial rule for the character values of symmetric groups. We give a new combinatorial proof by explicitly finding the trace of the representing matrices in the standard basis of Specht modules. This gives an essentially bijective proof of the rule. A key lemma is an extension of a straightening result proved by the second author to skew tableaux. Our module theoretic

For a given w in a Coxeter group W, the elements u smaller than w in Bruhat order can be seen as the end alcoves of stammering galleries of type w in the Coxeter complex \(\Sigma \). We generalize this notion and consider sets of end alcoves of galleries that are positively folded with respect to certain orientation \(\phi \) of \(\Sigma \). We call these sets shadows. Positively folded galleries are

In a series of papers, Dartyge and Sárközy (partly with other coauthors) studied pseudorandom subsets. In this paper, we study the minimal values of correlation measures of pseudorandom subsets by extending the methods introduced in Alon et al. (Comb Probab Comput 15:1–29, 2006), Anantharam (Discrete Math 308:6203–6209, 2008), Gyarmati (Stud Sci Math Hung 42:79–93, 2005) and Gyarmati and Mauduit (Discrete

The degree of a lattice polytope is a notion in Ehrhart theory that was studied quite intensively over previous years. It is well known that a lattice polytope has normalized volume one if and only if its degree is zero. Recently, Esterov and Gusev gave a complete classification result for families of n lattice polytopes in \({\mathbb {R}}^n\) whose mixed volume equals one. Here, we give a reformulation

We present nine bijections between classes of Dyck paths and classes of standard Young tableaux (SYT). In particular, we consider SYT of flag and rectangular shapes, we give Dyck path descriptions for certain SYT of height at most 3, and we introduce a special class of labeled Dyck paths of semilength n that is shown to be in bijection with the set of all SYT with n boxes. In addition, we present bijections

For a poset whose Hasse diagram is a rooted plane forest F, we consider the corresponding tree descent polynomial \(A_F(q)\), which is a generating function of the number of descents of the labelings of F. When the forest is a path, \(A_F(q)\) specializes to the classical Eulerian polynomial. We prove that the coefficient sequence of \(A_F(q)\) is unimodal and that if \(\{T_{n}\}\) is a sequence of