On the number of rectangulations of a planar point set

AbstractWe investigate the number of different ways in which a rectangle containing a set of n noncorectilinear points can be partitioned into smaller rectangles by n (nonintersecting) segments, such that every point lies on a segment. We show that when the relative order of the points forms a separable permutation, the number of rectangulations is exactly the (n+1)st Baxter number. We also show that no matter what the order of the points is, the number of guillotine rectangulations is always the nth Schröder number, and the total number of rectangulations is O(20n/n4)

An Upper Bound for the Number of Rectangulations of a Planar Point Set

We prove that every set of n points in the plane has at most $17^n$ rectangulations. This improves upon a long-standing bound of Ackerman. Our proof is based on the cross-graph charging-scheme technique.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

The Flip Diameter of Rectangulations and Convex Subdivisions

We study the configuration space of rectangulations and convex subdivisions of $n$ points in the plane. It is shown that a sequence of $O(n\log n)$ elementary flip and rotate operations can transform any rectangulation to any other rectangulation on the same set of $n$ points. This bound is the best possible for some point sets, while $\Theta(n)$ operations are sufficient and necessary for others. Some of our bounds generalize to convex subdivisions of $n$ points in the plane.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, an extended abstract has been presented at LATIN 201

A Note on Flips in Diagonal Rectangulations

Rectangulations are partitions of a square into axis-aligned rectangles. A number of results provide bijections between combinatorial equivalence classes of rectangulations and families of pattern-avoiding permutations. Other results deal with local changes involving a single edge of a rectangulation, referred to as flips, edge rotations, or edge pivoting. Such operations induce a graph on equivalence classes of rectangulations, related to so-called flip graphs on triangulations and other families of geometric partitions. In this note, we consider a family of flip operations on the equivalence classes of diagonal rectangulations, and their interpretation as transpositions in the associated Baxter permutations, avoiding the vincular patterns { 3{14}2, 2{41}3 }. This complements results from Law and Reading (JCTA, 2012) and provides a complete characterization of flip operations on diagonal rectangulations, in both geometric and combinatorial terms

Generic rectangulations

A rectangulation is a tiling of a rectangle by a finite number of rectangles. The rectangulation is called generic if no four of its rectangles share a single corner. We initiate the enumeration of generic rectangulations up to combinatorial equivalence by establishing an explicit bijection between generic rectangulations and a set of permutations defined by a pattern-avoidance condition analogous to the definition of the twisted Baxter permutations.Comment: Final version to appear in Eur. J. Combinatorics. Since v2, I became aware of literature on generic rectangulations under the name rectangular drawings. There are results on asymptotic enumeration and computations counting generic rectangulations with n rectangles for many n. This result answers an open question posed in the rectangular drawings literature. See "Note added in proof.

Exploiting Air-Pressure to Map Floorplans on Point Sets

We prove a conjecture of Ackerman, Barequet and Pinter. Every floorplan with n segments can be embedded on every set of n points in generic position. The construction makes use of area universal floorplans also known as area universal rectangular layouts. The notion of area used in our context depends on a nonuniform density function. We, therefore, have to generalize the theory of area universal floorplans to this situation. The method is then used to prove a result about accommodating points in floorplans that is slightly more general than the conjecture of Ackerman et al

The Hopf algebra of diagonal rectangulations

We define and study a combinatorial Hopf algebra dRec with basis elements indexed by diagonal rectangulations of a square. This Hopf algebra provides an intrinsic combinatorial realization of the Hopf algebra tBax of twisted Baxter permutations, which previously had only been described extrinsically as a sub Hopf algebra of the Malvenuto-Reutenauer Hopf algebra of permutations. We describe the natural lattice structure on diagonal rectangulations, analogous to the Tamari lattice on triangulations, and observe that diagonal rectangulations index the vertices of a polytope analogous to the associahedron. We give an explicit bijection between twisted Baxter permutations and the better-known Baxter permutations, and describe the resulting Hopf algebra structure on Baxter permutations.Comment: Very minor changes from version 1, in response to comments by referees. This is the final version, to appear in JCTA. 43 pages, 17 figure

Bijections for Baxter Families and Related Objects

The Baxter number can be written as $B_n = \sum_0^n \Theta_{k,n-k-1}$. These numbers have first appeared in the enumeration of so-called Baxter permutations; $B_n$ is the number of Baxter permutations of size $n$, and $\Theta_{k,l}$ is the number of Baxter permutations with $k$ descents and $l$ rises. With a series of bijections we identify several families of combinatorial objects counted by the numbers $\Theta_{k,l}$. Apart from Baxter permutations, these include plane bipolar orientations with $k+2$ vertices and $l+2$ faces, 2-orientations of planar quadrangulations with $k+2$ white and $l+2$ black vertices, certain pairs of binary trees with $k+1$ left and $l+1$ right leaves, and a family of triples of non-intersecting lattice paths. This last family allows us to determine the value of $\Theta_{k,l}$ as an application of the lemma of Gessel and Viennot. The approach also allows us to count certain other subfamilies, e.g., alternating Baxter permutations, objects with symmetries and, via a bijection with a class of plan bipolar orientations also Schnyder woods of triangulations, which are known to be in bijection with 3-orientations.Comment: 31 pages, 22 figures, submitted to JCT