Actions on permutations and unimodality of descent polynomials

We study a group action on permutations due to Foata and Strehl and use it to prove that the descent generating polynomial of certain sets of permutations has a nonnegative expansion in the basis $\{t^i(1+t)^{n-1-2i}\}_{i=0}^m$, $m=\lfloor (n-1)/2 \rfloor$. This property implies symmetry and unimodality. We prove that the action is invariant under stack-sorting which strengthens recent unimodality results of B\'ona. We prove that the generalized permutation patterns $(13-2)$ and $(2-31)$ are invariant under the action and use this to prove unimodality properties for a $q$-analog of the Eulerian numbers recently studied by Corteel, Postnikov, Steingr\'{\i}msson and Williams. We also extend the action to linear extensions of sign-graded posets to give a new proof of the unimodality of the $(P,\omega)$-Eulerian polynomials of sign-graded posets and a combinatorial interpretations (in terms of Stembridge's peak polynomials) of the corresponding coefficients when expanded in the above basis. Finally, we prove that the statistic defined as the number of vertices of even height in the unordered decreasing tree of a permutation has the same distribution as the number of descents on any set of permutations invariant under the action. When restricted to the set of stack-sortable permutations we recover a result of Kreweras.Comment: 19 pages, revised version to appear in Europ. J. Combi

Distributive lattice models of the type C one-rowed Weyl group symmetric functions

We present two families of diamond-colored distributive lattices – one known and one new – that we can show are models of the type C one-rowed Weyl symmetric functions. These lattices are constructed using certain sequences of positive integers that are visualized as filling the boxes of one-rowed partition diagrams. We show how natural orderings of these one-rowed tableaux produce our distributive lattices as sublattices of a more general object, and how a natural coloring of the edges of the associated order diagrams yields a certain diamond-coloring property. We show that each edge-colored lattice possesses a certain structure that is associated with the type C Weyl groups. Moreover, we produce a bijection that shows how any two affiliated lattices, one from each family, are models for the same type C one-rowed Weyl symmetric function. While our type C one-rowed lattices have multiple algebraic contexts, this thesis largely focusses on their combinatorial aspects

On positivity of Ehrhart polynomials

Ehrhart discovered that the function that counts the number of lattice points in dilations of an integral polytope is a polynomial. We call the coefficients of this polynomial Ehrhart coefficients, and say a polytope is Ehrhart positive if all Ehrhart coefficients are positive (which is not true for all integral polytopes). The main purpose of this article is to survey interesting families of polytopes that are known to be Ehrhart positive and discuss the reasons from which their Ehrhart positivity follows. We also include examples of polytopes that have negative Ehrhart coefficients and polytopes that are conjectured to be Ehrhart positive, as well as pose a few relevant questions.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures. To appear in in Recent Trends in Algebraic Combinatorics, a volume of the Association for Women in Mathematics Series, Springer International Publishin

Three Fuss-Catalan posets in interaction and their associative algebras

We introduce $\delta$-cliffs, a generalization of permutations and increasing trees depending on a range map $\delta$. We define a first lattice structure on these objects and we establish general results about its subposets. Among them, we describe sufficient conditions to have EL-shellable posets, lattices with algorithms to compute the meet and the join of two elements, and lattices constructible by interval doubling. Some of these subposets admit natural geometric realizations. Then, we introduce three families of subposets which, for some maps $\delta$, have underlying sets enumerated by the Fuss-Catalan numbers. Among these, one is a generalization of Stanley lattices and another one is a generalization of Tamari lattices. These three families of posets fit into a chain for the order extension relation and they share some properties. Finally, in the same way as the product of the Malvenuto-Reutenauer algebra forms intervals of the right weak order of permutations, we construct algebras whose products form intervals of the lattices of $\delta$-cliff. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions on $\delta$ to have associative, finitely presented, or free algebras. We end this work by using the previous Fuss-Catalan posets to define quotients of our algebras of $\delta$-cliffs. In particular, one is a generalization of the Loday-Ronco algebra and we get new generalizations of this structure.Comment: 63 page

Polynomial maps with applications to combinatorics and probability theory

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mathematics, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-80).by Dan Port.Ph.D