Related papers: Stack words and a bound for 3-stack sortable permu…
The pop-stack-sorting process is a variation of the stack-sort process. We consider a deterministic version of this process, and provide a new lower bound of $\frac{3}{5}n$ for the number of sorts to fully sort a uniformly randomly chosen…
We prove a "decomposition lemma" that allows us to count preimages of certain sets of permutations under West's stack-sorting map $s$. As a first application, we give a new proof of Zeilberger's formula for the number of 2-stack-sortable…
We use a method for determining the number of preimages of any permutation under the stack-sorting map in order to obtain recursive upper bounds for the numbers $W_t(n)$ and $W_t(n,k)$ of $t$-stack sortable permutations of length $n$ and…
We introduce a sorting machine consisting of $k+1$ stacks in series: the first $k$ stacks can only contain elements in decreasing order from top to bottom, while the last one has the opposite restriction. This device generalizes \cite{SM},…
We prove a lower and an upper bound on the number of block moves necessary to sort a permutation. We put our results in contrast with existing results on sorting by block transpositions, and raise some open questions.
A fork stack is a generalised stack which allows pushes and pops of several items at a time. We consider the problem of determining which input streams can be sorted using a single forkstack, or dually, which permutations of a fixed input…
We introduce an algorithm to determine when a sorting operation, such as stack-sort or bubble-sort, outputs a given pattern. The algorithm provides a new proof of the description of West-2-stack-sortable permutations, that is permutations…
We characterise and enumerate permutations that are sortable by n-4 passes through a stack. We conjecture the number of permutations sortable by n-5 passes, and also the form of a formula for the general case n-k, which involves a…
Permutations in the image of the pop-stack operator are said to be pop-stacked. We give a polynomial-time algorithm to count pop-stacked permutations up to a fixed length and we use it to compute the first 1000 terms of the corresponding…
We describe a new method for finding patterns in permutations that produce a given pattern after the permutation has been passed once through a stack. We use this method to describe West-3-stack-sortable permutations, that is, permutations…
We solve two long-standing open problems on word equations. Firstly, we prove that a one-variable word equation with constants has either at most three or an infinite number of solutions. The existence of such a bound had been conjectured,…
We study a sorting machine consisting of two stacks in series where the first stack has the added restriction such that entries in the stack must be in decreasing order from top to bottom. We give the basis of the class of permutations that…
The avoidability, or unavoidability of patterns in words over finite alphabets has been studied extensively. A word (pattern) over a finite set is said to be unavoidable if, for all but finitely many words, there exists a morphism mapping…
We consider the set of permutations that are sorted after two passes through a pop stack. We characterize these permutations in terms of forbidden patterns (classical and barred) and enumerate them according to the ascent statistic. Then we…
The (classical) problem of characterizing and enumerating permutations that can be sorted using two stacks connected in series is still largely open. In the present paper we address a related problem, in which we impose restrictions both on…
Higher-order pushdown systems and ground tree rewriting systems can be seen as extensions of suffix word rewriting systems. Both classes generate infinite graphs with interesting logical properties. Indeed, the model-checking problem for…
We obtain an upper and lower bound for the number of reduced words for a permutation in terms of the number of braid classes and the number of commutation classes of the permutation. We classify the permutations that achieve each of these…
We develop new polynomial methods for studying systems of word equations. We use them to improve some earlier results and to analyze how sizes of systems of word equations satisfying certain independence properties depend on the lengths of…
We consider a stack sorting algorithm where only the appropriate output values are popped from the stack and then any remaining entries in the stack are run through the stack in reverse order. We identify the basis for the $2$-reverse pass…
Using earlier results we prove a formula for the number $W_{(n,k)}$ of 2-stack sortable permutations of length $n$ with $k$ runs, or in other words, $k-1$ descents. This formula will yield the suprising fact that there are as many 2-stack…