Two-sided permutation statistics via symmetric functions

Given a permutation statistic $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}$ , define its inverse statistic $\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}$ by . We give a general approach, based on the theory of symmetric functions, for finding the joint distribution of $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ira M. Gessel, Yan Zhuang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2024-01-01
Series:Forum of Mathematics, Sigma
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2050509424000896/type/journal_article
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Summary:Given a permutation statistic $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}$ , define its inverse statistic $\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}$ by . We give a general approach, based on the theory of symmetric functions, for finding the joint distribution of $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}_{2}$ whenever $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{2}$ are descent statistics: permutation statistics that depend only on the descent composition. We apply this method to a number of descent statistics, including the descent number, the peak number, the left peak number, the number of up-down runs and the major index. Perhaps surprisingly, in many cases the polynomial giving the joint distribution of $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}_{2}$ can be expressed as a simple sum involving products of the polynomials giving the (individual) distributions of $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{2}$ . Our work leads to a rederivation of Stanley’s generating function for doubly alternating permutations, as well as several conjectures concerning real-rootedness and $\gamma $ -positivity.
ISSN:2050-5094