English

Sorting Permutations with Fixed Pinnacle Set

Data Structures and Algorithms 2020-01-29 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

We give a positive answer to a question raised by Davis et al. ({\em Discrete Mathematics} 341, 2018), concerning permutations with the same pinnacle set. Given πSn\pi\in S_n, a {\em pinnacle} of π\pi is an element πi\pi_i (i1,ni\neq 1,n) such that πi1<πi>πi+1\pi_{i-1}<\pi_i>\pi_{i+1}. The question is: given π,πSn\pi,\pi'\in S_n with the same pinnacle set SS, is there a sequence of operations that transforms π\pi into π\pi' such that all the intermediate permutations have pinnacle set SS? We introduce {\em balanced reversals}, defined as reversals that do not modify the pinnacle set of the permutation to which they are applied. Then we show that π\pi may be sorted by balanced reversals (i.e. transformed into a standard permutation \IdS\Id_S), implying that π\pi may be transformed into π\pi' using at most 4n2min{p,3}4n-2\min\{p,3\} balanced reversals, where p=S1p=|S|\geq 1. In case p=0p=0, at most 2n12n-1 balanced reversals are needed.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2001.08417,
  title  = {Sorting Permutations with Fixed Pinnacle Set},
  author = {Irena Rusu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.08417},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

18 pages, 1 figure