What power of two divides a weighted Catalan number?

Given a sequence of integers b = (b_0,b_1,b_2,...) one gives a Dyck path P of length 2n the weight wt(P) = b_{h_1} b_{h_2} ... b_{h_n}, where h_i is the height of the ith ascent of P. The corresponding weighted Catalan number is C_n^b = sum_P wt(P), where the sum is over all Dyck paths of length 2n. So, in particular, the ordinary Catalan numbers C_n correspond to b_i = 1 for all i >= 0. Let xi(n) stand for the base two exponent of n, i.e., the largest power of 2 dividing n. We give a condition on b which implies that xi(C_n^b) = xi(C_n). In the special case b_i=(2i+1)^2, this settles a conjecture of Postnikov about the number of plane Morse links. Our proof generalizes the recent combinatorial proof of Deutsch and Sagan of the classical formula for xi(C_n).Comment: Fixed reference

On the diagram of 132-avoiding permutations

The diagram of a 132-avoiding permutation can easily be characterized: it is simply the diagram of a partition. Based on this fact, we present a new bijection between 132-avoiding and 321-avoiding permutations. We will show that this bijection translates the correspondences between these permutations and Dyck paths given by Krattenthaler and by Billey-Jockusch-Stanley, respectively, to each other. Moreover, the diagram approach yields simple proofs for some enumerative results concerning forbidden patterns in 132-avoiding permutations.Comment: 20 pages; additional reference is adde

Counting Dyck paths by area and rank

The set of Dyck paths of length $2n$ inherits a lattice structure from a bijection with the set of noncrossing partitions with the usual partial order. In this paper, we study the joint distribution of two statistics for Dyck paths: \emph{area} (the area under the path) and \emph{rank} (the rank in the lattice). While area for Dyck paths has been studied, pairing it with this rank function seems new, and we get an interesting $(q,t)$-refinement of the Catalan numbers. We present two decompositions of the corresponding generating function: one refines an identity of Carlitz and Riordan; the other refines the notion of $\gamma$-nonnegativity, and is based on a decomposition of the lattice of noncrossing partitions due to Simion and Ullman. Further, Biane's correspondence and a result of Stump allow us to conclude that the joint distribution of area and rank for Dyck paths equals the joint distribution of length and reflection length for the permutations lying below the $n$-cycle $(12...n)$ in the absolute order on the symmetric group.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures. Connections with work of C. Stump (arXiv:0808.2822v2) eliminated the need for 5 pages of proof in the first draf