The recent work of Bonnafé et al. (2007) shows through two conjectures that $r$-domino tableaux have an important role in Kazhdan-Lusztig theory of type $B$ with unequal parameters. In this paper we provide plactic relations on signed permutations which determine whether given two signed permutations have the same insertion $r$-domino tableaux in Garfinkle's algorithm (1990). Moreover, we show that a particular extension of these relations can describe Garfinkle's equivalence relation on $r$-domino tableaux which is given through the notion of open cycles. With these results we enunciate the conjectures of Bonnafé et al. and provide necessary tool for their proofs.
Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science