On a curious variant of the SnS_n-module LienLie_n

We introduce a variant of the much-studied $Lie$ representation of the symmetric group $S_n$, which we denote by $Lie_n^{(2)}.$ Our variant gives rise to a decomposition of the regular representation as a sum of {exterior} powers of modules $Lie_n^{(2)}.$ This is in contrast to the theorems of Poincar\'e-Birkhoff-Witt and Thrall which decompose the regular representation into a sum of symmetrised $Lie$ modules. We show that nearly every known property of $Lie_n$ has a counterpart for the module $Lie_n^{(2)},$ suggesting connections to the cohomology of configuration spaces via the character formulas of Sundaram and Welker, to the Eulerian idempotents of Gerstenhaber and Schack, and to the Hodge decomposition of the complex of injective words arising from Hochschild homology, due to Hanlon and Hersh.Comment: 26 pages, 2 tables. To appear in Algebraic Combinatorics. Parts of this paper are included in arXiv:1803.0936

On the topology of two partition posets with forbidden block sizes

AbstractWe study two subposets of the partition lattice obtained by restricting block sizes. The first consists of set partitions of {1,…,n} with block size at most k, for k≤n−2. We show that the order complex has the homotopy type of a wedge of spheres, in the cases 2k+2≥n and n=3k+2. For 2k+2>n, the posets in fact have the same Sn−1-homotopy type as the order complex of Πn−1, and the Sn-homology representation is the “tree representation” of Robinson and Whitehouse. We present similar results for the subposet of Πn in which a unique block size k≥3 is forbidden. For 2k≥n, the order complex has the homotopy type of a wedge of (n−4)-spheres. The homology representation of Sn can be simply described in terms of the Whitehouse lifting of the homology representation of Πn−1

On counting permutations by pairs of congruence classes of major index

For a fixed positive integer n, let S_n denote the symmetric group of n! permutations on n symbols, and let maj(sigma) denote the major index of a permutation sigma. For positive integers k<m not greater than n and non-negative integers i and j, we give enumerative formulas for the cardinality of the set of permutations sigma in S_n with maj(sigma) congruent to i mod k and maj(sigma^(-1)) congruent to j mod m. When m divides n-1 and k divides n, we show that for all i,j, this cardinality equals (n!)/(km).Comment: 8 page

The reflection representation in the homology of subword order

We investigate the homology representation of the symmetric group on rank-selected subposets of subword order. We show that the homology module for words of bounded length, over an alphabet of size $n,$ decomposes into a sum of tensor powers of the $S_n$-irreducible $S_{(n-1,1)}$ indexed by the partition $(n-1,1),$ recovering, as a special case, a theorem of Bj\"orner and Stanley for words of length at most $k.$ For arbitrary ranks we show that the homology is an integer combination of positive tensor powers of the reflection representation $S_{(n-1,1)}$, and conjecture that this combination is nonnegative. We uncover a curious duality in homology in the case when one rank is deleted. We prove that the action on the rank-selected chains of subword order is a nonnegative integer combination of tensor powers of $S_{(n-1,1)}$, and show that its Frobenius characteristic is $h$-positive and supported on the set $T_{1}(n)=\{h_\lambda: \lambda=(n-r, 1^r), r\ge 1\}.$ Our most definitive result describes the Frobenius characteristic of the homology for an arbitrary set of ranks, plus or minus one copy of the Schur function $s_{(n-1,1)},$ as an integer combination of the set $T_{2}(n)=\{h_\lambda: \lambda=(n-r, 1^r), r\ge 2\}.$ We conjecture that this combination is nonnegative, establishing this fact for particular cases.Comment: 30 pages; typos corrected; sections have been reorganised. To appear in Algebraic Combinatoric