English

The number of permutations realized by a shift

Combinatorics 2009-09-15 v1 Dynamical Systems

Abstract

A permutation p is realized by the shift on N symbols if there is an infinite word on an N-letter alphabet whose successive left shifts by one position are lexicographically in the same relative order as p. The set of realized permutations is closed under consecutive pattern containment. Permutations that cannot be realized are called forbidden patterns. It was shown in [Amigo, Elizalde, Kennel, J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 115 (2008) 485-504] that the shortest forbidden patterns of the shift on N symbols have length N+2. In this paper we give a characterization of the set of permutations that are realized by the shift on N symbols, and we enumerate them according to their length.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0909.2274,
  title  = {The number of permutations realized by a shift},
  author = {Sergi Elizalde},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.2274},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

19 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:45:35.044Z