Smith Normal Form of a Multivariate Matrix Associated with Partitions

Consideration of a question of E. R. Berlekamp led Carlitz, Roselle, and Scoville to give a combinatorial interpretation of the entries of certain matrices of determinant~1 in terms of lattice paths. Here we generalize this result by refining the matrix entries to be multivariate polynomials, and by determining not only the determinant but also the Smith normal form of these matrices. A priori the Smith form need not exist but its existence follows from the explicit computation. It will be more convenient for us to state our results in terms of partitions rather than lattice paths.Comment: 12 pages; revised version (minor changes on first version); to appear in J. Algebraic Combinatoric

The Descent Set and Connectivity Set of a Permutation

The descent set D(w) of a permutation w of 1,2,...,n is a standard and well-studied statistic. We introduce a new statistic, the connectivity set C(w), and show that it is a kind of dual object to D(w). The duality is stated in terms of the inverse of a matrix that records the joint distribution of D(w) and C(w). We also give a variation involving permutations of a multiset and a q-analogue that keeps track of the number of inversions of w.Comment: 12 page

Ordering Events in Minkowski Space

We are given k points (events) in (n+1)-dimensional Minkowski space. Using the theory of hyperplane arrangments and chromatic polynomials, we obtain information the number of different orders in which the events can occur in different reference frames if the events are sufficiently generic. We consider the question of what sets of orderings of the points are possible and show a connection with sphere orders and the allowable sequences of Goodman and Pollack.Comment: 17 page

The Smith Normal Form of a Specialized Jacobi-Trudi Matrix

Let $\mathrm{JT}_\lambda$ be the Jacobi-Trudi matrix corresponding to the partition $\lambda$, so $\det\mathrm{JT}_\lambda$ is the Schur function $s_\lambda$ in the variables $x_1,x_2,\dots$. Set $x_1=\cdots=x_n=1$ and all other $x_i=0$. Then the entries of $\mathrm{JT}_\lambda$ become polynomials in $n$ of the form ${n+j-1\choose j}$. We determine the Smith normal form over the ring $\mathbb{Q}[n]$ of this specialization of $\mathrm{JT}_\lambda$. The proof carries over to the specialization $x_i=q^{i-1}$ for $1\leq i\leq n$ and $x_i=0$ for $i>n$, where we set $q^n=y$ and work over the ring $\mathbb{Q}(q)[y]$.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Spanning trees and a conjecture of Kontsevich

Kontsevich conjectured that the number f(G,q) of zeros over the finite field with q elements of a certain polynomial connected with the spanning trees of a graph G is polynomial function of q. We have been unable to settle Kontsevich's conjecture. However, we can evaluate f(G,q) explicitly for certain graphs G, such as the complete graph. We also point out the connection between Kontsevich's conjecture and such topics as the Matrix-Tree Theorem and orthogonal geometry.Comment: 18 pages. This version corrects some minor inaccuracies and adds some computational information provided by John Stembridg

Valid Orderings of Real Hyperplane Arrangements

Given a real finite hyperplane arrangement A and a point p not on any of the hyperplanes, we define an arrangement vo(A,p), called the *valid order arrangement*, whose regions correspond to the different orders in which a line through p can cross the hyperplanes in A. If A is the set of affine spans of the facets of a convex polytope P and p lies in the interior of P, then the valid orderings with respect to p are just the line shellings of p where the shelling line contains p. When p is sufficiently generic, the intersection lattice of vo(A,p) is the *Dilworth truncation* of the semicone of A. Various applications and examples are given. For instance, we determine the maximum number of line shellings of a d-polytope with m facets when the shelling line contains a fixed point p. If P is the order polytope of a poset, then the sets of facets visible from a point involve a generalization of chromatic polynomials related to list colorings.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

The Rank and Minimal Border Strip Decompositions of a Skew Partition

Nazarov and Tarasov recently generalized the notion of the rank of a partition to skew partitions. We give several characterizations of the rank of a skew partition and one possible characterization that remains open. One of the characterizations involves the decomposition of a skew shape into a minimal number of border strips, and we develop a theory of these MBSD's as well as of the closely related minimal border strip tableaux. An application is given to the value of a character of the symmetric group S_n indexed by a skew shape z at a permutation whose number of cycles is the rank of z.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figure