Authors: Ilse Fischer ¹; Lukas Riegler ²

• 1 Faculty of Mathematics [Vienna]
• 2 Fakultät für Mathematik [Wien]

The number of Monotone Triangles with bottom row $k_1 < k_2 < ⋯< k_n$ is given by a polynomial $\alpha (n; k_1,\ldots,k_n)$ in $n$ variables. The evaluation of this polynomial at weakly decreasing sequences $k_1 ≥k_2 ≥⋯≥k_n $turns out to be interpretable as signed enumeration of new combinatorial objects called Decreasing Monotone Triangles. There exist surprising connections between the two classes of objects – in particular it is shown that $\alpha (n;1,2,\ldots,n) = \alpha (2n; n,n,n-1,n-1,\ldots,1,1)$. In perfect analogy to the correspondence between Monotone Triangles and Alternating Sign Matrices, the set of Decreasing Monotone Triangles with bottom row $(n,n,n-1,n-1,\ldots,1,1)$ is in one-to-one correspondence with a certain set of ASM-like matrices, which also play an important role in proving the claimed identity algebraically. Finding a bijective proof remains an open problem.