DMTCS Proceedings vol. AK, 21st International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC 2009)

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1. Infinite log-concavity: developments and conjectures

Peter R. W. McNamara ; Bruce E. Sagan.

Given a sequence $(a_k)=a_0,a_1,a_2,\ldots$ of real numbers, define a new sequence $\mathcal{L}(a_k)=(b_k)$ where $b_k=a_k^2-a_{k-1}a_{k+1}$. So $(a_k)$ is log-concave if and only if $(b_k)$ is a nonnegative sequence. Call $(a_k)$ $\textit{infinitely log-concave}$ if $\mathcal{L}^i(a_k)$ is nonnegative for all $i \geq 1$. Boros and Moll conjectured that the rows of Pascal's triangle are infinitely log-concave. Using a computer and a stronger version of log-concavity, we prove their conjecture for the $n$th row for all $n \leq 1450$. We can also use our methods to give a simple proof of a recent result of Uminsky and Yeats about regions of infinite log-concavity. We investigate related questions about the columns of Pascal's triangle, $q$-analogues, symmetric functions, real-rooted polynomials, and Toeplitz matrices. In addition, we offer several conjectures.

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2. An Edge-Signed Generalization of Chordal Graphs, Free Multiplicities on Braid Arrangements, and Their Characterizations

Takuro Abe ; Koji Nuida ; Yasuhide Numata.

In this article, we propose a generalization of the notion of chordal graphs to signed graphs, which is based on the existence of a perfect elimination ordering for a chordal graph. We give a special kind of filtrations of the generalized chordal graphs, and show a characterization of those graphs. Moreover, we also describe a relation between signed graphs and a certain class of multiarrangements of hyperplanes, and show a characterization of free multiarrangements in that class in terms of the generalized chordal graphs, which generalizes a well-known result by Stanley on free hyperplane arrangements. Finally, we give a remark on a relation of our results with a recent conjecture by Athanasiadis on freeness characterization for another class of hyperplane arrangements.

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3. On wiring and tiling diagrams related to bases of tropical Plücker functions

Vladimir I. Danilov ; Alexander V. Karzanov ; Gleb A. Koshevoy.

We consider the class of bases $B$ of tropical Plücker functions on the Boolean $n$-cube such that $B$ can be obtained by a series of flips from the basis formed by the intervals of the ordered set of $n$ elements. We show that these bases are representable by special wiring diagrams and by certain arrangements generalizing rhombus tilings on a zonogon.

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4. Characters of symmetric groups in terms of free cumulants and Frobenius coordinates

Maciej Dolega ; Valentin Féray ; Piotr Sniady.

Free cumulants are nice and useful functionals of the shape of a Young diagram, in particular they give the asymptotics of normalized characters of symmetric groups $\mathfrak{S}(n)$ in the limit $n \to \infty$. We give an explicit combinatorial formula for normalized characters of the symmetric groups in terms of free cumulants. We also express characters in terms of Frobenius coordinates. Our formulas involve counting certain factorizations of a given permutation. The main tool are Stanley polynomials which give values of characters on multirectangular Young diagrams.

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5. Matrix Ansatz, lattice paths and rook placements

S. Corteel ; M. Josuat-Vergès ; T. Prellberg ; M. Rubey.

We give two combinatorial interpretations of the Matrix Ansatz of the PASEP in terms of lattice paths and rook placements. This gives two (mostly) combinatorial proofs of a new enumeration formula for the partition function of the PASEP. Besides other interpretations, this formula gives the generating function for permutations of a given size with respect to the number of ascents and occurrences of the pattern $13-2$, the generating function according to weak exceedances and crossings, and the $n^{\mathrm{th}}$ moment of certain $q$-Laguerre polynomials.

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6. Indecomposable permutations with a given number of cycles

Robert Cori ; Claire Mathieu.

A permutation $a_1a_2 \ldots a_n$ is $\textit{indecomposable}$ if there does not exist $p \lt n$ such that $a_1a_2 \ldots a_p$ is a permutation of $\{ 1,2, \ldots ,p\}$. We compute the asymptotic probability that a permutation of $\mathbb{S}_n$ with $m$ cycles is indecomposable as $n$ goes to infinity with $m/n$ fixed. The error term is $O(\frac{\log(n-m)}{ n-m})$. The asymptotic probability is monotone in $m/n$, and there is no threshold phenomenon: it degrades gracefully from $1$ to $0$. When $n=2m$, a slight majority ($51.1 \ldots$ percent) of the permutations are indecomposable. We also consider indecomposable fixed point free involutions which are in bijection with maps of arbitrary genus on orientable surfaces, for these involutions with $m$ left-to-right maxima we obtain a lower bound for the probability of being indecomposable.

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7. A max-flow algorithm for positivity of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients

Peter Bürgisser ; Christian Ikenmeyer.

Littlewood-Richardson coefficients are the multiplicities in the tensor product decomposition of two irreducible representations of the general linear group $\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})$. They have a wide variety of interpretations in combinatorics, representation theory and geometry. Mulmuley and Sohoni pointed out that it is possible to decide the positivity of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients in polynomial time. This follows by combining the saturation property of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients (shown by Knutson and Tao 1999) with the well-known fact that linear optimization is solvable in polynomial time. We design an explicit $\textit{combinatorial}$ polynomial time algorithm for deciding the positivity of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. This algorithm is highly adapted to the problem and it is based on ideas from the theory of optimizing flows in networks.

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8. Combinatorial invariant theory of projective reflection groups

Fabrizio Caselli.

We introduce the class of projective reflection groups which includes all complex reflection groups. We show that several aspects involving the combinatorics and the representation theory of complex reflection groups find a natural description in this wider setting.

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9. A new combinatorial identity for unicellular maps, via a direct bijective approach.

Guillaume Chapuy.

We give a bijective operation that relates unicellular maps of given genus to unicellular maps of lower genus, with distinguished vertices. This gives a new combinatorial identity relating the number $\epsilon_g(n)$ of unicellular maps of size $n$ and genus $g$ to the numbers $\epsilon _j(n)$'s, for $j \lt g$. In particular for each $g$ this enables to compute the closed-form formula for $\epsilon_g(n)$ much more easily than with other known identities, like the Harer-Zagier formula. From the combinatorial point of view, we give an explanation to the fact that $\epsilon_g(n)=R_g(n) \mathrm{Cat}(n)$, where $\mathrm{Cat}(n$) is the $n$-th Catalan number and $R_g$ is a polynomial of degree $3g$, with explicit interpretation.

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10. $k$-distant crossings and nestings of matchings and partitions

Dan Drake ; Jang Soo Kim.

We define and consider $k$-distant crossings and nestings for matchings and set partitions, which are a variation of crossings and nestings in which the distance between vertices is important. By modifying an involution of Kasraoui and Zeng (Electronic J. Combinatorics 2006, research paper 33), we show that the joint distribution of $k$-distant crossings and nestings is symmetric. We also study the numbers of $k$-distant noncrossing matchings and partitions for small $k$, which are counted by well-known sequences, as well as the orthogonal polynomials related to $k$-distant noncrossing matchings and partitions. We extend Chen et al.'s $r$-crossings and enhanced $r$-crossings.

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11. Permutations realized by shifts

Sergi Elizalde.

A permutation $\pi$ is realized by the shift on $N$ symbols if there is an infinite word on an $N$-letter alphabet whose successive left shifts by one position are lexicographically in the same relative order as $\pi$. The set of realized permutations is closed under consecutive pattern containment. Permutations that cannot be realized are called forbidden patterns. It was shown in [J.M. Amigó, S. Elizalde and M. Kennel, $\textit{J. Combin. Theory Ser. A}$ 115 (2008), 485―504] that the shortest forbidden patterns of the shift on $N$ symbols have length $N+2$. In this paper we give a characterization of the set of permutations that are realized by the shift on $N$ symbols, and we enumerate them with respect to their length.

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12. Refinements of the Littlewood-Richardson rule

J. Haglund ; K. Luoto ; S. Mason ; S. van Willigenburg.

We refine the classical Littlewood-Richardson rule in several different settings. We begin with a combinatorial rule for the product of a Demazure atom and a Schur function. Building on this, we also describe the product of a quasisymmetric Schur function and a Schur function as a positive sum of quasisymmetric Schur functions. Finally, we provide a combinatorial formula for the product of a Demazure character and a Schur function as a positive sum of Demazure characters. This last rule implies the classical Littlewood-Richardson rule for the multiplication of two Schur functions.

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13. On the Monotone Column Permanent conjecture

James Haglund ; Mirkó Visontai.

We discuss some recent progress on the Monotone Column Permanent (MCP) conjecture. We use a general method for proving that a univariate polynomial has real roots only, namely by showing that a corresponding multivariate polynomial is stable. Recent connections between stability of polynomials and the strong Rayleigh property revealed by Brändén allows for a computationally feasible check of stability for multi-affine polynomials. Using this method we obtain a simpler proof for the $n=3$ case of the MCP conjecture, and a new proof for the $n=4$ case. We also show a multivariate version of the stability of Eulerian polynomials for $n \leq 5$ which arises as a special case of the multivariate MCP conjecture.

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14. Counting Quiver Representations over Finite Fields Via Graph Enumeration

Geir Helleloid ; Fernando Rodriguez-Villegas.

Let $\Gamma$ be a quiver on $n$ vertices $v_1, v_2, \ldots , v_n$ with $g_{ij}$ edges between $v_i$ and $v_j$, and let $\boldsymbol{\alpha} \in \mathbb{N}^n$. Hua gave a formula for $A_{\Gamma}(\boldsymbol{\alpha}, q)$, the number of isomorphism classes of absolutely indecomposable representations of $\Gamma$ over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ with dimension vector $\boldsymbol{\alpha}$. We use Hua's formula to show that the derivatives of $A_{\Gamma}(\boldsymbol{\alpha}, q)$ with respect to $q$, when evaluated at $q = 1$, are polynomials in the variables $g_{ij}$, and we can compute the highest degree terms in these polynomials. The formulas for these coefficients depend on the enumeration of certain families of connected graphs. This note simply gives an overview of these results; a complete account of this research is available on the arXiv and has been submitted for publication.

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15. Perfectness of Kirillov―Reshetikhin crystals for nonexceptional types

Ghislain Fourier ; Masato Okado ; Anne Schilling.

For nonexceptional types, we prove a conjecture of Hatayama et al. about the prefectness of Kirillov―Reshetikhin crystals.

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16. New Hopf Structures on Binary Trees

Stefan Forcey ; Aaron Lauve ; Frank Sottile.

The multiplihedra $\mathcal{M}_{\bullet} = (\mathcal{M}_n)_{n \geq 1}$ form a family of polytopes originating in the study of higher categories and homotopy theory. While the multiplihedra may be unfamiliar to the algebraic combinatorics community, it is nestled between two families of polytopes that certainly are not: the permutahedra $\mathfrak{S}_{\bullet}$ and associahedra $\mathcal{Y}_{\bullet}$. The maps $\mathfrak{S}_{\bullet} \twoheadrightarrow \mathcal{M}_{\bullet} \twoheadrightarrow \mathcal{Y}_{\bullet}$ reveal several new Hopf structures on tree-like objects nestled between the Hopf algebras $\mathfrak{S}Sym$ and $\mathcal{Y}Sym$. We begin their study here, showing that $\mathcal{M}Sym$ is a module over $\mathfrak{S}Sym$ and a Hopf module over $\mathcal{Y}Sym$. An elegant description of the coinvariants for $\mathcal{M}Sym$ over $\mathcal{Y}Sym$ is uncovered via a change of basis-using Möbius inversion in posets built on the $1$-skeleta of $\mathcal{M}_{\bullet}$. Our analysis uses the notion of an $\textit{interval retract}$ that should be of independent interest in poset combinatorics. It also reveals new families of polytopes, and even a new factorization of a known projection from the associahedra to hypercubes.

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17. Median clouds and a fast transposition median solver

Niklas Eriksen.

The median problem seeks a permutation whose total distance to a given set of permutations (the base set) is minimal. This is an important problem in comparative genomics and has been studied for several distance measures such as reversals. The transposition distance is less relevant biologically, but it has been shown that it behaves similarly to the most important biological distances, and can thus give important information on their properties. We have derived an algorithm which solves the transposition median problem, giving all transposition medians (the median cloud). We show that our algorithm can be modified to accept median clouds as elements in the base set and briefly discuss the new concept of median iterates (medians of medians) and limit medians, that is the limit of this iterate.

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18. Enumeration of derangements with descents in prescribed positions

Niklas Eriksen ; Ragnar Freij ; Johan Wästlund.

We enumerate derangements with descents in prescribed positions. A generating function was given by Guo-Niu Han and Guoce Xin in 2007. We give a combinatorial proof of this result, and derive several explicit formulas. To this end, we consider fixed point $\lambda$-coloured permutations, which are easily enumerated. Several formulae regarding these numbers are given, as well as a generalisation of Euler's difference tables. We also prove that except in a trivial special case, if a permutation $\pi$ is chosen uniformly among all permutations on $n$ elements, the events that $\pi$ has descents in a set $S$ of positions, and that $\pi$ is a derangement, are positively correlated.

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19. Bijections between noncrossing and nonnesting partitions for classical reflection groups

Alex Fink ; Benjamin Iriarte Giraldo.

We present $\textit{type preserving}$ bijections between noncrossing and nonnesting partitions for all classical reflection groups, answering a question of Athanasiadis and Reiner. The bijections for the abstract Coxeter types $B$, $C$ and $D$ are new in the literature. To find them we define, for every type, sets of statistics that are in bijection with noncrossing and nonnesting partitions, and this correspondence is established by means of elementary methods in all cases. The statistics can be then seen to be counted by the generalized Catalan numbers Cat$(W)$ when $W$ is a classical reflection group. In particular, the statistics of type $A$ appear as a new explicit example of objects that are counted by the classical Catalan numbers.

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20. A preorder-free construction of the Kazhdan-Lusztig representations of $S_n$, with connections to the Clausen representations

Charles Buehrle ; Mark Skandera.

We use the polynomial ring $\mathbb{C}[x_{1,1},\ldots,x_{n,n}]$ to modify the Kazhdan-Lusztig construction of irreducible $S_n$-modules. This modified construction produces exactly the same matrices as the original construction in [$\textit{Invent. Math}$ $\mathbf{53}$ (1979)], but does not employ the Kazhdan-Lusztig preorders. We also show that our modules are related by unitriangular transition matrices to those constructed by Clausen in [$\textit{J. Symbolic Comput.}$ $\textbf{11}$ (1991)]. This provides a $\mathbb{C}[x_{1,1},\ldots,x_{n,n}]$-analog of results of Garsia-McLarnan in [$\textit{Adv. Math.}$ $\textbf{69}$ (1988)].

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21. Quasipolynomial formulas for the Kronecker coefficients indexed by two two―row shapes (extended abstract)

Emmanuel Briand ; Rosa Orellana ; Mercedes Rosas.

We show that the Kronecker coefficients indexed by two two―row shapes are given by quadratic quasipolynomial formulas whose domains are the maximal cells of a fan. Simple calculations provide explicitly the quasipolynomial formulas and a description of the associated fan. These new formulas are obtained from analogous formulas for the corresponding reduced Kronecker coefficients and a formula recovering the Kronecker coefficients from the reduced Kronecker coefficients. As an application, we characterize all the Kronecker coefficients indexed by two two-row shapes that are equal to zero. This allowed us to disprove a conjecture of Mulmuley about the behavior of the stretching functions attached to the Kronecker coefficients.

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22. Matroid Polytopes and Their Volumes

Federico Ardila ; Carolina Benedetti ; Jeffrey Doker.

We express the matroid polytope $P_M$ of a matroid $M$ as a signed Minkowski sum of simplices, and obtain a formula for the volume of $P_M$. This gives a combinatorial expression for the degree of an arbitrary torus orbit closure in the Grassmannian $Gr_{k,n}$. We then derive analogous results for the independent set polytope and the associated flag matroid polytope of $M$. Our proofs are based on a natural extension of Postnikov's theory of generalized permutohedra.

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23. Riffle shuffles of a deck with repeated cards

Sami Assaf ; Persi Diaconis ; K. Soundararajan.

We study the Gilbert-Shannon-Reeds model for riffle shuffles and ask 'How many times must a deck of cards be shuffled for the deck to be in close to random order?'. In 1992, Bayer and Diaconis gave a solution which gives exact and asymptotic results for all decks of practical interest, e.g. a deck of 52 cards. But what if one only cares about the colors of the cards or disregards the suits focusing solely on the ranks? More generally, how does the rate of convergence of a Markov chain change if we are interested in only certain features? Our exploration of this problem takes us through random walks on groups and their cosets, discovering along the way exact formulas leading to interesting combinatorics, an 'amazing matrix', and new analytic methods which produce a completely general asymptotic solution that is remarkable accurate.

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24. A kicking basis for the two column Garsia-Haiman modules

Sami Assaf ; Adriano Garsia.

In the early 1990s, Garsia and Haiman conjectured that the dimension of the Garsia-Haiman module $R_{\mu}$ is $n!$, and they showed that the resolution of this conjecture implies the Macdonald Positivity Conjecture. Haiman proved these conjectures in 2001 using algebraic geometry, but the question remains to find an explicit basis for $R_{\mu}$ which would give a simple proof of the dimension. Using the theory of Orbit Harmonics developed by Garsia and Haiman, we present a "kicking basis" for $R_{\mu}$ when $\mu$ has two columns.

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25. The Hiring Problem and Permutations

Margaret Archibald ; Conrado Martínez.

The $\textit{hiring problem}$ has been recently introduced by Broder et al. in last year's ACM-SIAM Symp. on Discrete Algorithms (SODA 2008), as a simple model for decision making under uncertainty. Candidates are interviewed in a sequential fashion, each one endowed with a quality score, and decisions to hire or discard them must be taken on the fly. The goal is to maintain a good rate of hiring while improving the "average'' quality of the hired staff. We provide here an alternative formulation of the hiring problem in combinatorial terms. This combinatorial model allows us the systematic use of techniques from combinatorial analysis, e. g., generating functions, to study the problem. Consider a permutation $\sigma :[1,\ldots, n] \to [1,\ldots, n]$. We process this permutation in a sequential fashion, so that at step $i$, we see the score or quality of candidate $i$, which is actually her face value $\sigma (i)$. Thus $\sigma (i)$ is the rank of candidate $i$; the best candidate among the $n$ gets rank $n$, while the worst one gets rank $1$. We define $\textit{rank-based}$ strategies, those that take their decisions using only the relative rank of the current candidate compared to the score of the previous candidates. For these strategies we can prove general theorems about the number of hired candidates in a permutation of length $n$, the time of the last hiring, and the average quality of the last hired candidate, using techniques from the area of […]

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26. Brauer-Schur functions

Kazuya Aokage.

A new class of functions is studied. We define the Brauer-Schur functions $B^{(p)}_{\lambda}$ for a prime number $p$, and investigate their properties. We construct a basis for the space of symmetric functions, which consists of products of $p$-Brauer-Schur functions and Schur functions. We will see that the transition matrix from the natural Schur function basis has some interesting numerical properties.

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27. Unital versions of the higher order peak algebras

Marcelo Aguiar ; Jean-Christophe Novelli ; Jean-Yves Thibon.

We construct unital extensions of the higher order peak algebras defined by Krob and the third author in [Ann. Comb. 9 (2005), 411―430], and show that they can be obtained as homomorphic images of certain subalgebras of the Mantaci-Reutenauer algebras of type $B$. This generalizes a result of Bergeron, Nyman and the first author [Trans. AMS 356 (2004), 2781―2824].

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28. Growth function for a class of monoids

Marie Albenque ; Philippe Nadeau.

In this article we study a class of monoids that includes Garside monoids, and give a simple combinatorial proof of a formula for the formal sum of all elements of the monoid. This leads to a formula for the growth function of the monoid in the homogeneous case, and can also be lifted to a resolution of the monoid algebra. These results are then applied to known monoids related to Coxeter systems: we give the growth function of the Artin-Tits monoids, and do the same for the dual braid monoids. In this last case we show that the monoid algebras of the dual braid monoids of type A and B are Koszul algebras.

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29. Universal cycles for permutation classes

Michael Albert ; Julian West.

We define a universal cycle for a class of $n$-permutations as a cyclic word in which each element of the class occurs exactly once as an $n$-factor. We give a general result for cyclically closed classes, and then survey the situation when the class is defined as the avoidance class of a set of permutations of length $3$, or of a set of permutations of mixed lengths $3$ and $4$.

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30. Enumeration of alternating sign matrices of even size (quasi)-invariant under a quarter-turn rotation

Jean-Christophe Aval ; Philippe Duchon.

The aim of this work is to enumerate alternating sign matrices (ASM) that are quasi-invariant under a quarter-turn. The enumeration formula (conjectured by Duchon) involves, as a product of three terms, the number of unrestrited ASm's and the number of half-turn symmetric ASM's.

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31. Linear time equivalence of Littlewood―Richardson coefficient symmetry maps

Olga Azenhas ; Alessandro Conflitti ; Ricardo Mamede.

Benkart, Sottile, and Stroomer have completely characterized by Knuth and dual Knuth equivalence a bijective proof of the Littlewood―Richardson coefficient conjugation symmetry, i.e. $c_{\mu, \nu}^{\lambda} =c_{\mu^t,\nu^t}^{\lambda ^t}$. Tableau―switching provides an algorithm to produce such a bijective proof. Fulton has shown that the White and the Hanlon―Sundaram maps are versions of that bijection. In this paper one exhibits explicitly the Yamanouchi word produced by that conjugation symmetry map which on its turn leads to a new and very natural version of the same map already considered independently. A consequence of this latter construction is that using notions of Relative Computational Complexity we are allowed to show that this conjugation symmetry map is linear time reducible to the Schützenberger involution and reciprocally. Thus the Benkart―Sottile―Stroomer conjugation symmetry map with the two mentioned versions, the three versions of the commutative symmetry map, and Schützenberger involution, are linear time reducible to each other. This answers a question posed by Pak and Vallejo.

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32. Automatic Classification of Restricted Lattice Walks

Alin Bostan ; Manuel Kauers.

We propose an $\textit{experimental mathematics approach}$ leading to the computer-driven $\textit{discovery}$ of various conjectures about structural properties of generating functions coming from enumeration of restricted lattice walks in 2D and in 3D.

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33. Unlabeled $(2+2)$-free posets, ascent sequences and pattern avoiding permutations

Mireille Bousquet-Mélou ; Anders Claesson ; Mark Dukes ; Sergey Kitaev.

We present statistic-preserving bijections between four classes of combinatorial objects. Two of them, the class of unlabeled $(\textrm{2+2})$-free posets and a certain class of chord diagrams (or involutions), already appeared in the literature, but were apparently not known to be equinumerous. The third one is a new class of pattern avoiding permutations, and the fourth one consists of certain integer sequences called $\textit{ascent sequences}$. We also determine the generating function of these classes of objects, thus recovering a non-D-finite series obtained by Zagier for chord diagrams. Finally, we characterize the ascent sequences that correspond to permutations avoiding the barred pattern $3\bar{1}52\bar{4}$, and enumerate those permutations, thus settling a conjecture of Pudwell.

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34. Application of graph combinatorics to rational identities of type $A^\ast$

Adrien Boussicault ; Valentin Féray.

To a word $w$, we associate the rational function $\Psi_w = \prod (x_{w_i} - x_{w_{i+1}})^{-1}$. The main object, introduced by C. Greene to generalize identities linked to Murnaghan-Nakayama rule, is a sum of its images by certain permutations of the variables. The sets of permutations that we consider are the linear extensions of oriented graphs. We explain how to compute this rational function, using the combinatorics of the graph $G$. We also establish a link between an algebraic property of the rational function (the factorization of the numerator) and a combinatorial property of the graph (the existence of a disconnecting chain).

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35. Shortest path poset of finite Coxeter groups

Saúl A. Blanco.

We define a poset using the shortest paths in the Bruhat graph of a finite Coxeter group $W$ from the identity to the longest word in $W, w_0$. We show that this poset is the union of Boolean posets of rank absolute length of $w_0$; that is, any shortest path labeled by reflections $t_1,\ldots,t_m$ is fully commutative. This allows us to give a combinatorial interpretation to the lowest-degree terms in the complete $\textbf{cd}$-index of $W$.

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36. Words and polynomial invariants of finite groups in non-commutative variables

Anouk Bergeron-Brlek ; Christophe Hohlweg ; Mike Zabrocki.

Let $V$ be a complex vector space with basis $\{x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_n\}$ and $G$ be a finite subgroup of $GL(V)$. The tensor algebra $T(V)$ over the complex is isomorphic to the polynomials in the non-commutative variables $x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n$ with complex coefficients. We want to give a combinatorial interpretation for the decomposition of $T(V)$ into simple $G$-modules. In particular, we want to study the graded space of invariants in $T(V)$ with respect to the action of $G$. We give a general method for decomposing the space $T(V)$ into simple $G$-module in terms of words in a particular Cayley graph of $G$. To apply the method to a particular group, we require a surjective homomorphism from a subalgebra of the group algebra into the character algebra. In the case of the symmetric group, we give an example of this homomorphism from the descent algebra. When $G$ is the dihedral group, we have a realization of the character algebra as a subalgebra of the group algebra. In those two cases, we have an interpretation for the graded dimensions of the invariant space in term of those words.

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37. $m$-noncrossing partitions and $m$-clusters

Aslak Bakke Buan ; Idun Reiten ; Hugh Thomas.

Let $W$ be a finite crystallographic reflection group, with root system $\Phi$. Associated to $W$ there is a positive integer, the generalized Catalan number, which counts the clusters in the associated cluster algebra, the noncrossing partitions for $W$, and several other interesting sets. Bijections have been found between the clusters and the noncrossing partitions by Reading and Athanasiadis et al. There is a further generalization of the generalized Catalan number, sometimes called the Fuss-Catalan number for $W$, which we will denote $C_m(W)$. Here $m$ is a positive integer, and $C_1(W)$ is the usual generalized Catalan number. $C_m(W)$ counts the $m$-noncrossing partitions for $W$ and the $m$-clusters for $\Phi$. In this abstract, we will give an explicit description of a bijection between these two sets. The proof depends on a representation-theoretic reinterpretation of the problem, in terms of exceptional sequences of representations of quivers.

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38. Enumeration of the distinct shuffles of permutations

Camillia Smith Barnes.

A shuffle of two words is a word obtained by concatenating the two original words in either order and then sliding any letters from the second word back past letters of the first word, in such a way that the letters of each original word remain spelled out in their original relative order. Examples of shuffles of the words $1234$ and $5678$ are, for instance, $15236784$ and $51236748$. In this paper, we enumerate the distinct shuffles of two permutations of any two lengths, where the permutations are written as words in the letters $1,2,3,\ldots ,m$ and $1,2,3,\ldots ,n$, respectively.

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39. The Ladder Crystal

Chris Berg.

In this paper, we introduce a new model of the crystal $B(\Lambda _0)$ of $\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}_{\ell}}$. We briefly describe some of the properties of this crystal and compare it to the combinatorial model of Misra and Miwa.

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40. The $q=-1$ phenomenon for bounded (plane) partitions via homology concentration

P. Hersh ; J. Shareshian ; D. Stanton.

Algebraic complexes whose "faces'' are indexed by partitions and plane partitions are introduced, and their homology is proven to be concentrated in even dimensions with homology basis indexed by fixed points of an involution, thereby explaining topologically two quite important instances of Stembridge's $q=-1$ phenomenon. A more general framework of invariant and coinvariant complexes with coefficients taken $\mod 2$ is developed, and as a part of this story an analogous topological result for necklaces is conjectured.

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41. Colored Tutte polynomials and composite knots

Gábor Hetyei ; Yuanan Diao ; Kenneth Hinson.

Surveying the results of three recent papers and some currently ongoing research, we show how a generalization of Brylawski's tensor product formula to colored graphs may be used to compute the Jones polynomial of some fairly complicated knots and, in the future, even virtual knots.

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42. A further correspondence between $(bc,\bar{b})$-parking functions and $(bc,\bar{b})$-forests

Heesung Shin ; Jiang Zeng.

For a fixed sequence of $n$ positive integers $(a,\bar{b}) := (a, b, b,\ldots, b)$, an $(a,\bar{b})$-parking function of length $n$ is a sequence $(p_1, p_2, \ldots, p_n)$ of positive integers whose nondecreasing rearrangement $q_1 \leq q_2 \leq \cdots \leq q_n$ satisfies $q_i \leq a+(i-1)b$ for any $i=1,\ldots, n$. A $(a,\bar{b})$-forest on $n$-set is a rooted vertex-colored forests on $n$-set whose roots are colored with the colors $0, 1, \ldots, a-1$ and the other vertices are colored with the colors $0, 1, \ldots, b-1$. In this paper, we construct a bijection between $(bc,\bar{b})$-parking functions of length $n$ and $(bc,\bar{b})$-forests on $n$-set with some interesting properties. As applications, we obtain a generalization of Gessel and Seo's result about $(c,\bar{1})$-parking functions [Ira M. Gessel and Seunghyun Seo, Electron. J. Combin. $\textbf{11}$(2)R27, 2004] and a refinement of Yan's identity [Catherine H. Yan, Adv. Appl. Math. $\textbf{27}$(2―3):641―670, 2001] between an inversion enumerator for $(bc,\bar{b})$-forests and a complement enumerator for $(bc,\bar{b})$-parking functions.

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43. A Combinatorial Approach to Multiplicity-Free Richardson Subvarieties of the Grassmannian

Michelle Snider.

We consider Buch's rule for K-theory of the Grassmannian, in the Schur multiplicity-free cases classified by Stembridge. Using a result of Knutson, one sees that Buch's coefficients are related to Möbius inversion. We give a direct combinatorial proof of this by considering the product expansion for Grassmannian Grothendieck polynomials. We end with an extension to the multiplicity-free cases of Thomas and Yong.

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44. The Discrete Fundamental Group of the Associahedron

Christopher Severs ; Jacob White.

The associahedron is an object that has been well studied and has numerous applications, particularly in the theory of operads, the study of non-crossing partitions, lattice theory and more recently in the study of cluster algebras. We approach the associahedron from the point of view of discrete homotopy theory, that is we consider 5-cycles in the 1-skeleton of the associahedron to be combinatorial holes, but 4-cycles to be contractible. We give a simple description of the equivalence classes of 5-cycles in the 1-skeleton and then identify a set of 5-cycles from which we may produce all other cycles. This set of 5-cycle equivalence classes turns out to be the generating set for the abelianization of the discrete fundamental group of the associahedron. In this paper we provide presentations for the discrete fundamental group and the abelianization of the discrete fundamental group. We also discuss applications to cluster algebras as well as generalizations to type B and D associahedra. \par

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45. k-Parabolic Subspace Arrangements

Christopher Severs ; Jacob White.

In this paper, we study k-parabolic arrangements, a generalization of the k-equal arrangement for any finite real reflection group. When k=2, these arrangements correspond to the well-studied Coxeter arrangements. Brieskorn (1971) showed that the fundamental group of the complement of the type W Coxeter arrangement (over $\mathbb{C}$) is isomorphic to the pure Artin group of type W. Khovanov (1996) gave an algebraic description for the fundamental group of the complement of the 3-equal arrangement (over $\mathbb{R}$). We generalize Khovanov's result to obtain an algebraic description of the fundamental group of the complement of the 3-parabolic arrangement for arbitrary finite reflection group. Our description is a real analogue to Brieskorn's description.

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46. Blocks in Constrained Random Graphs with Fixed Average Degree

Konstantinos Panagiotou.

This work is devoted to the study of typical properties of random graphs from classes with structural constraints, like for example planar graphs, with the additional restriction that the average degree is fixed. More precisely, within a general analytic framework, we provide sharp concentration results for the number of blocks (maximal biconnected subgraphs) in a random graph from the class in question. Among other results, we discover that essentially such a random graph belongs with high probability to only one of two possible types: it either has blocks of at most logarithmic size, or there is a \emphgiant block that contains linearly many vertices, and all other blocks are significantly smaller. This extends and generalizes the results in the previous work [K. Panagiotou and A. Steger. Proceedings of the 20th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA '09), pp. 432-440, 2009], where similar statements were shown without the restriction on the average degree.

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47. The shifted plactic monoid (extended abstract)

Luis Serrano.

We introduce a shifted analog of the plactic monoid of Lascoux and Schützenberger, the \emphshifted plactic monoid. It can be defined in two different ways: via the \emphshifted Knuth relations, or using Haiman's mixed insertion. Applications include: a new combinatorial derivation (and a new version of) the shifted Littlewood-Richardson Rule; similar results for the coefficients in the Schur expansion of a Schur P-function; a shifted counterpart of the Lascoux-Schützenberger theory of noncommutative Schur functions in plactic variables; a characterization of shifted tableau words; and more.

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48. Noncrossing partitions and the shard intersection order

Nathan Reading.

We define a new lattice structure (W,\preceq ) on the elements of a finite Coxeter group W. This lattice, called the \emphshard intersection order, is weaker than the weak order and has the noncrossing partition lattice \NC (W) as a sublattice. The new construction of \NC (W) yields a new proof that \NC (W) is a lattice. The shard intersection order is graded and its rank generating function is the W-Eulerian polynomial. Many order-theoretic properties of (W,\preceq ), like Möbius number, number of maximal chains, etc., are exactly analogous to the corresponding properties of \NC (W). There is a natural dimension-preserving bijection between simplices in the order complex of (W,\preceq ) (i.e. chains in <mbox>(W,\preceq )</mbox>) and simplices in a certain pulling triangulation of the W-permutohedron. Restricting the bijection to the order complex of \NC (W) yields a bijection to simplices in a pulling triangulation of the W-associahedron. The lattice (W,\preceq ) is defined indirectly via the polyhedral geometry of the reflecting hyperplanes of W\!. Indeed, most of the results of the paper are proven in the more general setting of simplicial hyperplane arrangements.

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49. The poset perspective on alternating sign matrices

Jessica Striker.

Alternating sign matrices (ASMs) are square matrices with entries 0, 1, or -1 whose rows and columns sum to 1 and whose nonzero entries alternate in sign. We put ASMs into a larger context by studying the order ideals of subposets of a certain poset, proving that they are in bijection with a variety of interesting combinatorial objects, including ASMs, totally symmetric self―complementary plane partitions (TSSCPPs), Catalan objects, tournaments, semistandard Young tableaux, and totally symmetric plane partitions. We use this perspective to prove an expansion of the tournament generating function as a sum over TSSCPPs which is analogous to a known formula involving ASMs.

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50. Combinatorial formulas for ⅃-coordinates in a totally nonnegative Grassmannian, extended abstract, extended abstract

Kelli Talaska.

Postnikov constructed a decomposition of a totally nonnegative Grassmannian $(Gr _{kn})_≥0$ into positroid cells. We provide combinatorial formulas that allow one to decide which cell a given point in $(Gr _{kn})_≥0$ belongs to and to determine affine coordinates of the point within this cell. This simplifies Postnikov's description of the inverse boundary measurement map and generalizes formulas for the top cell given by Speyer and Williams. In addition, we identify a particular subset of Plücker coordinates as a totally positive base for the set of non-vanishing Plücker coordinates for a given positroid cell.

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51. Permutations with Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial $ P_id,w(q)=1+q^h$

Alexander Woo.

Using resolutions of singularities introduced by Cortez and a method for calculating Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials due to Polo, we prove the conjecture of Billey and Braden characterizing permutations w with Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial$ P_id,w(q)=1+q^h$ for some $h$.

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52. Combinatorial Formula for the Hilbert Series of bigraded $S_n$-modules

Meesue Yoo.

We introduce a combinatorial way of calculating the Hilbert series of bigraded $S_n$-modules as a weighted sum over standard Young tableaux in the hook shape case. This method is based on Macdonald formula for Hall-Littlewood polynomial and extends the result of $A$. Garsia and $C$. Procesi for the Hilbert series when $q=0$. Moreover, we give the way of associating the fillings giving the monomial terms of Macdonald polynomials to the standard Young tableaux.

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53. An immanant formulation of the dual canonical basis of the quantum polynomial ring

Mark Skandera ; Justin Lambright.

We show that dual canonical basis elements of the quantum polynomial ring in $n^2$ variables can be expressed as specializations of dual canonical basis elements of $0$-weight spaces of other quantum polynomial rings. Our results rely upon the natural appearance in the quantum polynomial ring of Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials, $R$-polynomials, and certain single and double parabolic generalizations of these.

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54. A promotion operator on rigged configurations

Qiang Wang.

In a recent paper, Schilling proposed an operator $\overline{\mathrm{pr}}$ on unrestricted rigged configurations $RC$, and conjectured it to be the promotion operator of the type $A$ crystal formed by $RC$. In this paper we announce a proof for this conjecture.

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55. On $k$-simplexes in $(2k-1)$-dimensional vector spaces over finite fields

Le Anh Vinh.

We show that if the cardinality of a subset of the $(2k-1)$-dimensional vector space over a finite field with $q$ elements is $\gg q^{2k-1-\frac{1}{ 2k}}$, then it contains a positive proportional of all $k$-simplexes up to congruence.

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56. Type B plactic relations for $r$-domino tableaux

Müge Taşkın.

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.

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57. Spanning forests, electrical networks, and a determinant identity

Elmar Teufl ; Stephan Wagner.

We aim to generalize a theorem on the number of rooted spanning forests of a highly symmetric graph to the case of asymmetric graphs. We show that this can be achieved by means of an identity between the minor determinants of a Laplace matrix, for which we provide two different (combinatorial as well as algebraic) proofs in the simplest case. Furthermore, we discuss the connections to electrical networks and the enumeration of spanning trees in sequences of self-similar graphs.

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58. Branching rules in the ring of superclass functions of unipotent upper-triangular matrices

Nathaniel Thiem.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the supercharacter theory of the finite group of unipotent upper-triangular matrices has a rich combinatorial structure built on set-partitions that is analogous to the partition combinatorics of the classical representation theory of the symmetric group. This paper begins by exploring a connection to the ring of symmetric functions in non-commuting variables that mirrors the symmetric group's relationship with the ring of symmetric functions. It then also investigates some of the representation theoretic structure constants arising from the restriction, tensor products and superinduction of supercharacters.

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59. Combinatorics of Positroids

Suho Oh.

Recently Postnikov gave a combinatorial description of the cells in a totally-nonnegative Grassmannian. These cells correspond to a special class of matroids called positroids. There are many interesting combinatorial objects associated to a positroid. We introduce some recent results, including the generalization and proof of the purity conjecture by Leclerc and Zelevinsky on weakly separated sets.

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60. Bounds of asymptotic occurrence rates of some patterns in binary words related to integer-valued logistic maps

Koji Nuida.

In this article, we investigate the asymptotic occurrence rates of specific subwords in any infinite binary word. We prove that the asymptotic occurrence rate for the subwords is upper- and lower-bounded in the same way for every infinite binary word, in terms of the asymptotic occurrence rate of the zeros. We also show that both of the bounds are best-possible by constructing, for each bound, a concrete infinite binary word such that the bound is reached. Moreover, we apply the result to analyses of recently-proposed pseudorandom number generators that are based on integer-valued variants of logistic maps.

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61. Combinatorial Formulas for Macdonald and Hall-Littlewood Polynomials

Cristian Lenart.

A breakthrough in the theory of (type $A$) Macdonald polynomials is due to Haglund, Haiman and Loehr, who exhibited a combinatorial formula for these polynomials in terms of fillings of Young diagrams. Recently, Ram and Yip gave a formula for the Macdonald polynomials of arbitrary type in terms of the corresponding affine Weyl group. In this paper, we show that a Haglund-Haiman-Loehr type formula follows naturally from the more general Ram-Yip formula, via compression. Then we extend this approach to the Hall-Littlewood polynomials of type $C$, which are specializations of the corresponding Macdonald polynomials at $q=0$. We note that no analog of the Haglund-Haiman-Loehr formula exists beyond type $A$, so our work is a first step towards finding such a formula.

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62. On the 2-adic order of Stirling numbers of the second kind and their differences

Tamás Lengyel.

Let $n$ and $k$ be positive integers, $d(k)$ and $\nu_2(k)$ denote the number of ones in the binary representation of $k$ and the highest power of two dividing $k$, respectively. De Wannemacker recently proved for the Stirling numbers of the second kind that $\nu_2(S(2^n,k))=d(k)-1, 1\leq k \leq 2^n$. Here we prove that $\nu_2(S(c2^n,k))=d(k)-1, 1\leq k \leq 2^n$, for any positive integer $c$. We improve and extend this statement in some special cases. For the difference, we obtain lower bounds on $\nu_2(S(c2^{n+1}+u,k)-S(c2^n+u,k))$ for any nonnegative integer $u$, make a conjecture on the exact order and, for $u=0$, prove part of it when $k \leq 6$, or $k \geq 5$ and $d(k) \leq 2$. The proofs rely on congruential identities for power series and polynomials related to the Stirling numbers and Bell polynomials, and some divisibility properties.

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63. Chip-Firing And A Devil's Staircase

Lionel Levine.

The devil's staircase ― a continuous function on the unit interval $[0,1]$ which is not constant, yet is locally constant on an open dense set ― is the sort of exotic creature a combinatorialist might never expect to encounter in "real life.'' We show how a devil's staircase arises from the combinatorial problem of parallel chip-firing on the complete graph. This staircase helps explain a previously observed "mode locking'' phenomenon, as well as the surprising tendency of parallel chip-firing to find periodic states of small period.

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64. Geometry and complexity of O'Hara's algorithm

Matjaž Konvalinka ; Igor Pak.

In this paper we analyze O'Hara's partition bijection. We present three type of results. First, we see that O'Hara's bijection can be viewed geometrically as a certain scissor congruence type result. Second, we present a number of new complexity bounds, proving that O'Hara's bijection is efficient in most cases and mildly exponential in general. Finally, we see that for identities with finite support, the map of the O'Hara's bijection can be computed in polynomial time, i.e. much more efficiently than by O'Hara's construction.

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65. Record statistics in integer compositions

Arnold Knopfmacher ; Toufik Mansour.

A $\textit{composition}$ $\sigma =a_1 a_2 \ldots a_m$ of $n$ is an ordered collection of positive integers whose sum is $n$. An element $a_i$ in $\sigma$ is a strong (weak) $\textit{record}$ if $a_i> a_j (a_i \geq a_j)$ for all $j=1,2,\ldots,i-1$. Furthermore, the position of this record is $i$. We derive generating functions for the total number of strong (weak) records in all compositions of $n$, as well as for the sum of the positions of the records in all compositions of $n$, where the parts $a_i$ belong to a fixed subset $A$ of the natural numbers. In particular when $A=\mathbb{N}$, we find the asymptotic mean values for the number, and for the sum of positions, of records in compositions of $n$.

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66. polymake and Lattice Polytopes

Michael Joswig ; Benjamin Müller ; Andreas Paffenholz.

The $\mathtt{polymake}$ software system deals with convex polytopes and related objects from geometric combinatorics. This note reports on a new implementation of a subclass for lattice polytopes. The features displayed are enabled by recent changes to the $\mathtt{polymake}$ core, which will be discussed briefly.

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67. The absolute order on the hyperoctahedral group

Myrto Kallipoliti.

The absolute order on the hyperoctahedral group $B_n$ is investigated. It is shown that every closed interval in this order is shellable, those closed intervals which are lattices are characterized and their zeta polynomials are computed. Moreover, using the notion of strong constructibility, it is proved that the order ideal generated by the Coxeter elements of $B_n$ is homotopy Cohen-Macaulay and the Euler characteristic of the order complex of the proper part of this ideal is computed. Finally, an example of a non Cohen-Macaulay closed interval in the absolute order on the group $D_4$ is given and the closed intervals of $D_n$ which are lattices are characterized.

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68. Rationality, irrationality, and Wilf equivalence in generalized factor order

Sergey Kitaev ; Jeffrey Liese ; Jeffrey Remmel ; Bruce Sagan.

Let $P$ be a partially ordered set and consider the free monoid $P^{\ast}$ of all words over $P$. If $w,w' \in P^{\ast}$ then $w'$ is a factor of $w$ if there are words $u,v$ with $w=uw'v$. Define generalized factor order on $P^{\ast}$ by letting $u \leq w$ if there is a factor $w'$ of $w$ having the same length as $u$ such that $u \leq w'$, where the comparison of $u$ and $w'$ is done componentwise using the partial order in $P$. One obtains ordinary factor order by insisting that $u=w'$ or, equivalently, by taking $P$ to be an antichain. Given $u \in P^{\ast}$, we prove that the language $\mathcal{F}(u)=\{w : w \geq u\}$ is accepted by a finite state automaton. If $P$ is finite then it follows that the generating function $F(u)=\sum_{w \geq u} w$ is rational. This is an analogue of a theorem of Björner and Sagan for generalized subword order. We also consider $P=\mathbb{P}$, the positive integers with the usual total order, so that $\mathbb{P}^{\ast}$ is the set of compositions. In this case one obtains a weight generating function $F(u;t,x)$ by substituting $tx^n$ each time $n \in \mathbb{P}$ appears in $F(u)$. We show that this generating function is also rational by using the transfer-matrix method. Words $u,v$ are said to be Wilf equivalent if $F(u;t,x)=F(v;t,x)$ and we can prove various Wilf equivalences combinatorially. Björner found a recursive formula for the Möbius function of ordinary factor order on $P^{\ast}$. It follows […]

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69. Macdonald polynomials at $t=q^k$

Jean-Gabriel Luque.

We investigate the homogeneous symmetric Macdonald polynomials $P_{\lambda} (\mathbb{X} ;q,t)$ for the specialization $t=q^k$. We show an identity relying the polynomials $P_{\lambda} (\mathbb{X} ;q,q^k)$ and $P_{\lambda} (\frac{1-q}{1-q^k}\mathbb{X} ;q,q^k)$. As a consequence, we describe an operator whose eigenvalues characterize the polynomials $P_{\lambda} (\mathbb{X} ;q,q^k)$.

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70. A bijection between noncrossing and nonnesting partitions of types A and B

Ricardo Mamede.

The total number of noncrossing partitions of type $\Psi$ is the $n$th Catalan number $\frac{1}{ n+1} \binom{2n}{n}$ when $\Psi =A_{n-1}$, and the binomial coefficient $\binom{2n}{n}$ when $\Psi =B_n$, and these numbers coincide with the correspondent number of nonnesting partitions. For type $A$, there are several bijective proofs of this equality; in particular, the intuitive map, which locally converts each crossing to a nesting, is one of them. In this paper we present a bijection between nonnesting and noncrossing partitions of types $A$ and $B$ that generalizes the type $A$ bijection that locally converts each crossing to a nesting.

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71. Cluster algebras of unpunctured surfaces and snake graphs

Gregg Musiker ; Ralf Schiffler.

We study cluster algebras with principal coefficient systems that are associated to unpunctured surfaces. We give a direct formula for the Laurent polynomial expansion of cluster variables in these cluster algebras in terms of perfect matchings of a certain graph $G_{T,\gamma}$ that is constructed from the surface by recursive glueing of elementary pieces that we call tiles. We also give a second formula for these Laurent polynomial expansions in terms of subgraphs of the graph $G_{T,\gamma}$ .

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72. $q$-Hook formula of Gansner type for a generalized Young diagram

Kento Nakada.

The purpose of this paper is to present the $q$-hook formula of Gansner type for a generalized Young diagram in the sense of D. Peterson and R. A. Proctor. This gives a far-reaching generalization of a hook length formula due to J. S. Frame, G. de B. Robinson, and R. M. Thrall. Furthurmore, we give a generalization of P. MacMahon's identity as an application of the $q$-hook formula.

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73. Another bijection between $2$-triangulations and pairs of non-crossing Dyck paths

Carlos M. Nicolás.

A $k$-triangulation of the $n$-gon is a maximal set of diagonals of the $n$-gon containing no subset of $k+1$ mutually crossing diagonals. The number of $k$-triangulations of the $n$-gon, determined by Jakob Jonsson, is equal to a $k \times k$ Hankel determinant of Catalan numbers. This determinant is also equal to the number of $k$ non-crossing Dyck paths of semi-length $n-2k$. This brings up the problem of finding a combinatorial bijection between these two sets. In FPSAC 2007, Elizalde presented such a bijection for the case $k=2$. We construct another bijection for this case that is stronger and simpler that Elizalde's. The bijection preserves two sets of parameters, degrees and generalized returns. As a corollary, we generalize Jonsson's formula for $k=2$ by counting the number of $2$-triangulations of the $n$-gon with a given degree at a fixed vertex.

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74. Bijective Enumeration of Bicolored Maps of Given Vertex Degree Distribution

Alejandro Morales ; Ekaterina Vassilieva.

We derive a new formula for the number of factorizations of a full cycle into an ordered product of two permutations of given cycle types. For the first time, a purely combinatorial argument involving a bijective description of bicolored maps of specified vertex degree distribution is used. All the previous results in the field rely either partially or totally on a character theoretic approach. The combinatorial proof relies on a new bijection extending the one in [G. Schaeffer and E. Vassilieva. $\textit{J. Comb. Theory Ser. A}$, 115(6):903―924, 2008] that focused only on the number of cycles. As a salient ingredient, we introduce the notion of thorn trees of given vertex degree distribution which are recursive planar objects allowing simple description of maps of arbitrary genus. \par

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75. Triangulations of root polytopes and reduced forms (Extended abstract)

Karola Mészáros.

The type $A_n$ root polytope $\mathcal{P}(A_n^+)$ is the convex hull in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ of the origin and the points $e_i-e_j$ for $1 \leq i < j \leq n+1$. Given a tree $T$ on vertex set $[n+1]$, the associated root polytope $\mathcal{P}(T)$ is the intersection of $\mathcal{P}(A_n^+)$ with the cone generated by the vectors $e_i-e_j$, where $(i, j) \in E(T)$, $i < j$. The reduced forms of a certain monomial $m[T]$ in commuting variables $x_{ij}$ under the reduction $x_{ij} x_{jk} \to x_{ik} x_{ij} + x_{jk} x_{ik} + \beta x_{ik}$, can be interpreted as triangulations of $\mathcal{P}(T)$. If we allow variables $x_{ij}$ and$x_{kl}$ to commute only when $i, j, k, l$ are distinct, then the reduced form of $m[T]$ is unique and yields a canonical triangulation of $\mathcal{P}(T)$ in which each simplex corresponds to a noncrossing alternating forest.

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76. Election algorithms with random delays in trees

Jean-François Marckert ; Nasser Saheb-Djahromi ; Akka Zemmari.

The election is a classical problem in distributed algorithmic. It aims to design and to analyze a distributed algorithm choosing a node in a graph, here, in a tree. In this paper, a class of randomized algorithms for the election is studied. The election amounts to removing leaves one by one until the tree is reduced to a unique node which is then elected. The algorithm assigns to each leaf a probability distribution (that may depends on the information transmitted by the eliminated nodes) used by the leaf to generate its remaining random lifetime. In the general case, the probability of each node to be elected is given. For two categories of algorithms, close formulas are provided.

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77. Hopf algebras and the logarithm of the S-transform in free probability ― Extended abstract

Mitja Mastnak ; Alexandru Nica.

This document is an extended abstract of the paper `Hopf algebras and the logarithm of the S-transform in free probability' in which we introduce a Hopf algebraic approach to the study of the operation $\boxtimes$ (free multiplicative convolution) from free probability.

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