Pattern-restricted permutations composed of 3-cycles

In this paper, we characterize and enumerate pattern-avoiding permutations composed of only 3-cycles. In particular, we answer the question for the six patterns of length 3. We find that the number of permutations composed of n 3-cycles that avoid the pattern 231 (equivalently 312) is given by $3^{n?1}$, while the generating function for the number of those that avoid the pattern 132 (equivalently 213) is given by a formula involving the generating functions for the well-known Motzkin numbers and Catalan numbers. The number of permutations composed of n 3-cycles that avoid the pattern 321 is characterized by a weighted sum involving statistics on Dyck paths of semilength n.     

On bijections for pattern-avoiding permutations

By considering bijections from the set of Dyck paths of length 2n onto each of Sn(321) and Sn(132), Elizalde and Pak in [S. Elizalde, I. Pak, Bijections for refined restricted permutations, J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 105 (2004) 207-219] gave a bijection that preserves the number of fixed points and the number of excedances in each σ∈Sn(321). We show that a direct bijection Γ:Sn(321)→Sn(132) introduced by Robertson in [A. Robertson, Restricted permutations from Catalan to Fine and back, Sém. Lothar. Combin. 50 (2004) B50g] also preserves the number of fixed points and the number of excedances in each σ. We also show that a bijection ?^∗:Sn(213)→Sn(321) studied in [J. Backelin, J. West, G. Xin, Wilf-equivalence for singleton classes, Adv. in Appl. Math. 38 (2007) 133-148] and [M. Bousquet-Melou, E. Steingrimsson, Decreasing subsequences in permutations and Wilf equivalence for involutions, J. Algebraic Combin. 22 (2005) 383-409] preserves these same statistics, and we show that an analogous bijection from Sn(132) onto Sn(213) does the same.     

The maximal-inversion statistic and pattern-avoiding permutations

We define a new combinatorial statistic, maximal-inversion, on a permutation. We remark that the number M(n,k) of permutations in S_n with k maximal-inversions is the signless Stirling number c(n,n−k) of the first kind. A permutation π in S_n is uniquely determined by its maximal-inversion set . We prove it by making an algorithm for retrieving the permutation from its maximal-inversion set. Also, we remark on how the algorithm can be used directly to determine whether a given set is the maximal-inversion set of a permutation. As an application of the algorithm, we characterize the maximal-inversion set for pattern-avoiding permutations. Then we give some enumerative results concerning permutations with forbidden patterns.     

Inversion polynomials for 321-avoiding permutations

We prove a generalization of a conjecture of Dokos, Dwyer, Johnson, Sagan, and Selsor giving a recursion for the inversion polynomial of 321-avoiding permutations. We also answer a question they posed about finding a recursive formula for the major index polynomial of 321-avoiding permutations. Other properties of these polynomials are investigated as well. Our tools include Dyck and 2-Motzkin paths, polyominoes, and continued fractions.     

A new class of multiset Wilf equivalent pairs

We say the pair of patterns (σ,τ) is multiset Wilf equivalent if, for any multiset M, the number of permutations of M that avoid σ is equal to the number of permutations of M that avoid τ. In this paper, we find a large new class of multiset Wilf equivalent pairs, namely, the pair (σ_n-2(n-1)n, σ_n-2n(n-1)), for n?3 and σ_n-2 a permutation of {1^x₁,2^x₂,…,(n-2)^x_n-2}. It is the most general multiset Wilf equivalence result to date.     

Pattern avoidance for alternating permutations and Young tableaux

We define a class Ln,k of permutations that generalizes alternating (up-down) permutations and give bijective proofs of certain pattern-avoidance results for this class. As a special case of our results, we give bijections between the set A2n(1234) of alternating permutations of length 2n with no four-term increasing subsequence and standard Young tableaux of shape 〈n³〉, and between the set A2n+1(1234) and standard Young tableaux of shape 〈³n−1,2,1〉. This represents the first enumeration of alternating permutations avoiding a pattern of length four. We also extend previous work on doubly-alternating permutations (alternating permutations whose inverses are alternating) to our more general context.The set Ln,k may be viewed as the set of reading words of the standard Young tableaux of a certain skew shape. In the last section of the paper, we expand our study to consider pattern avoidance in the reading words of standard Young tableaux of any skew shape. We show bijectively that the number of standard Young tableaux of shape λ/μ whose reading words avoid 213 is a natural μ-analogue of the Catalan numbers (and in particular does not depend on λ, up to a simple technical condition), and that there are similar results for the patterns 132, 231 and 312.     

RNA secondary structure, permutations, and statistics

We construct a permutation representation for RNA secondary structure. We also introduce some basic combinatorial statistics for RNA secondary structure and relate them to permutation statistics when appropriate. These statistics allow us to quantify some structural phenomena in RNA secondary structure.     

Descent distribution on Catalan words avoiding a pattern of length at most three

Catalan words are particular growth-restricted words over the set of non-negative integers, and they represent still another combinatorial class counted by the Catalan numbers. We study the distribution of descents on the sets of Catalan words avoiding a pattern of length at most three: for each such a pattern $p$ we provide a bivariate generating function where the coefficient of $x^n{y}^k$ in its series expansion is the number of length $n$$p$-avoiding Catalan words with $k$ descents. As a byproduct, we enumerate the set of Catalan words avoiding $p$, and we provide the popularity of descents on this set.     

Bijections between pattern-avoiding fillings of Young diagrams

The pattern-avoiding fillings of Young diagrams we study arose from Postnikov's work on positive Grassmann cells. They are called -diagrams, and are in bijection with decorated permutations. Other closely-related fillings are interpreted as acyclic orientations of some bipartite graphs. The definition of the diagrams is the same but the avoided patterns are different. We give here bijections proving that the number of pattern-avoiding filling of a Young diagram is the same, for these two different sets of patterns. The result was obtained by Postnikov via a recurrence relation. This relation was extended by Spiridonov to obtain more general results about other patterns and other polyominoes than Young diagrams, and we show that our bijections also extend to more general polyominoes.     

Permutations, parenthesis words, and Schröder numbers

A different proof for the following result due to West is given: the Schröder number s[inn−1] equals the number of permutations on [1,2,] …, nþat avoid the pattern (3,1,4,2) and its dual (2,4,1,3).