Related papers: How many pop-stacks does it take to sort a permuta…

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 use an interesting result of probabilistic flavor concerning the product of two permutations consisting of one cycle each to find an explicit formula for the average number of block interchanges needed to sort a permutation of length…

Let $s$ be West's deterministic stack-sorting map. A well-known result (West) is that any length $n$ permutation can be sorted with $n-1$ iterations of $s.$ In 2020, Defant introduced the notion of highly-sorted permutations -- permutations…

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},…

The problem of determining which permutations can be sorted using certain switchyard networks dates back to Knuth in 1968. In this work, we are interested in permutations which are sortable on a double-ended queue (called a deque), or on…

We study sorting by queues that can rearrange their content by applying permutations from a predefined set. These new sorting devices are called shuffle queues and we investigate those of them corresponding to sets of permutations defining…

A sock sequence is a sequence of elements, which we will refer to as socks, from a finite alphabet. A sock sequence is sorted if all occurrences of a sock appear consecutively. We define equivalence classes of sock sequences called sock…

Using existing classification results for the 7- and 8-cycles in the pancake graph, we determine the number of permutations that require 4 pancake flips (prefix reversals) to be sorted. A similar characterization of the 8-cycles in the…

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…

We use stack words to find a new, simple proof for the best known upper bound for the number of 3-stack sortable permutations of a given length. This is the first time that stack words are used to obtain such a result.

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 continue the study of Adin, Alon and Roichman [arXiv:2502.14398, 2025] on the number of steps required to sort $n$ labelled points on a circle by transpositions. Imagine that the vertices of a cycle of length $n$ are labelled by the…

In this paper we examine the sorting operator $T(LnR)=T(R)T(L)n$. Applying this operator to a permutation is equivalent to passing the permutation reversed through a stack. We prove theorems that characterise $t$-revstack sortability in…

We consider the problem of determining the maximum number of moves required to sort a permutation of $[n]$ using cut-and-paste operations, in which a segment is cut out and then pasted into the remaining string, possibly reversed. We give…

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 address the problem of the number of permutations that can be sorted by two stacks in series. We do this by first counting all such permutations of length less than 20 exactly, then using a numerical technique to obtain nineteen further…

Partially ordered patterns (POPs) generalize the notion of classical patterns studied widely in the literature in the context of permutations, words, compositions and partitions. In an occurrence of a POP, the relative order of some of the…

We prove that the set of permutations sorted by a stack of depth $t \geq 3$ and an infinite stack in series has infinite basis, by constructing an infinite antichain. This answers an open question on identifying the point at which, in a…

We extend and generalize many of the enumerative results concerning West's stack-sorting map $s$. First, we prove a useful theorem that allows one to efficiently compute $|s^{-1}(\pi)|$ for any permutation $\pi$, answering a question of…

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…