English

Permutations sortable by deques and by two stacks in parallel

Combinatorics 2020-02-18 v2

Abstract

Recently Albert and Bousquet-M\'elou \cite{AB15} obtained the solution to the long-standing problem of the number of permutations sortable by two stacks in parallel (tsip). Their solution was expressed in terms of functional equations. We show that the equally long-standing problem of the number of permutations sortable by a double-ended queue (deque) can be simply related to the solution of the same functional equations. Subject to plausible, but unproved, conditions, the radius of convergence of both generating functions is the same. Numerical work confirms this conjecture to 10 significant digits. Further numerical work suggests that the coefficients of the deque generating function behave as κdμnn3/2,\kappa_d \cdot \mu^n \cdot n^{-3/2}, where μ=8.281402207,\mu = 8.281402207\ldots, while the coefficients of the corresponding tsip generating function behave as κpμnnγ\kappa_p \cdot \mu^n \cdot n^{\gamma} with γ2.473.\gamma \approx -2.473. The constants κd\kappa_d and κp\kappa_p are also estimated. {\em Inter alia,} we study the asymptotics of quarter-plane loops, starting and ending at the origin, with weight aa given to north-west and east-south turns. The critical point varies continuously with a,a, while the corresponding exponent variation is found to be continuous and monotonic for a>1/2,a > -1/2, but discontinuous at a=1/2.a=-1/2.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1508.02273,
  title  = {Permutations sortable by deques and by two stacks in parallel},
  author = {Andrew Elvey Price and Anthony J. Guttmann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.02273},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

31 pages, 8 figures, typos corrected, additional figures and references. Improved introduction and analysis. Aspects of proofs clarified

R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:30:05.642Z