Riordan Paths and Derangements

Riordan paths are Motzkin paths without horizontal steps on the x-axis. We establish a correspondence between Riordan paths and $(321,3\bar{1}42)$-avoiding derangements. We also present a combinatorial proof of a recurrence relation for the Riordan numbers in the spirit of the Foata-Zeilberger proof of a recurrence relation on the Schr\"oder numbers.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Minimal factorizations of permutations into star transpositions

We give a compact expression for the number of factorizations of any permutation into a minimal number of transpositions of the form (excluded due to format error) source. This generalizes earlier work of Pak in which substantial restrictions were placed on the permutation being factored. Our result exhibits an unexpected and simple symmetry of star factorizations that has yet to be explained in a satisfactory manner

Stable multivariate WW-Eulerian polynomials

We prove a multivariate strengthening of Brenti's result that every root of the Eulerian polynomial of type $B$ is real. Our proof combines a refinement of the descent statistic for signed permutations with the notion of real stability-a generalization of real-rootedness to polynomials in multiple variables. The key is that our refined multivariate Eulerian polynomials satisfy a recurrence given by a stability-preserving linear operator. Our results extend naturally to colored permutations, and we also give stable generalizations of recent real-rootedness results due to Dilks, Petersen, and Stembridge on affine Eulerian polynomials of types $A$ and $C$. Finally, although we are not able to settle Brenti's real-rootedness conjecture for Eulerian polynomials of type $D$, nor prove a companion conjecture of Dilks, Petersen, and Stembridge for affine Eulerian polynomials of types $B$ and $D$, we indicate some methods of attack and pose some related open problems.Comment: 17 pages. To appear in J. Combin. Theory Ser.