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We prove PSPACE-completeness of two classic types of Chess problems when generalized to n-by-n boards. A "retrograde" problem asks whether it is possible for a position to be reached from a natural starting position, i.e., whether the…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2020-10-20 Josh Brunner , Erik D. Demaine , Dylan Hendrickson , Julian Wellman

We describe and compute various families of commuting elements of the matrix shuffle algebra of type $\mathfrak{gl}_{n|m}$, which is expected to be isomorphic to quantum toroidal $\mathfrak{gl}_{n|m}$. Our formulas are given in terms of…

Quantum Algebra · Mathematics 2026-03-26 Alexandr Garbali , Andrei Neguţ

Establishing cutoff, an abrupt transition from "not mixed" to "well mixed", is a classical topic in the theory of mixing times for Markov chains. Interest has grown recently in determining not only the existence of cutoff and the order of…

Probability · Mathematics 2024-12-11 Evita Nestoridi , Sam Olesker-Taylor

This paper studies statistics of riffle shuffles by relating them to random word statistics with the use of inverse shuffles. Asymptotic normality of the number of descents and inversions in riffle shuffles with convergence rates of order…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2013-03-12 Umit Islak

This paper studies biased riffle shuffles, first defined by Diaconis, Fill, and Pitman. These shuffles generalize the well-studied Gilbert-Shannon-Reeds shuffle and convolve nicely. An upper bound is given for the time for these shuffles to…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2007-05-23 Jason Fulman

Swish is a card game in which players are given cards having symbols (hoops and balls), and find a valid superposition of cards, called a "swish." Dailly, Lafourcade, and Marcadet (FUN 2024) studied a generalized version of Swish and showed…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2026-01-15 Takashi Horiyama , Takehiro Ito , Jun Kawahara , Shin-ichi Minato , Akira Suzuki , Ryuhei Uehara , Yutaro Yamaguchi

Let $\mathcal{SS}_k(n)$ be the family of {\it shuffle squares} in $[k]^{2n}$, words that can be partitioned into two disjoint identical subsequences. Let $\mathcal{RSS}_k(n)$ be the family of {\it reverse shuffle squares} in $[k]^{2n}$,…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-11-21 Xiaoyu He , Emily Huang , Ihyun Nam , Rishubh Thaper

We prove that for a suitably nice class of random substitutions, their corresponding subshifts have automorphism groups that contain an infinite simple subgroup and a copy of the automorphism group of a full shift. Hence, they are…

Dynamical Systems · Mathematics 2023-09-13 Robbert Fokkink , Dan Rust , Ville Salo

Recall the classical 15-puzzle, consisting of 15 sliding blocks in a $4\times 4$ grid. Famously, the configuration space of this puzzle consists of two connected components, corresponding to the odd and even permutations of the symmetric…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-12-19 Florestan Brunck , Matthew Kwan

We introduce the shuffle of deformed permutahedra (a.k.a. generalized permutahedra), a simple associative operation obtained as the Cartesian product followed by the Minkowski sum with the graphical zonotope of a complete bipartite graph.…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-06-30 Frédéric Chapoton , Vincent Pilaud

A special sorting operation called Context Directed Swap, and denoted \textbf{cds}, performs certain types of block interchanges on permutations. When a permutation is sortable by \textbf{cds}, then \textbf{cds} sorts it using the fewest…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-11-03 G. Brown , A. Mitchell , R. Raghavan , J. Rogge , M. Scheepers

We consider a generalized riffle shuffle on the colored permutation group $G_{p, n}$ and derive a determinantal formula for the probability of finding descents at given positions, proof of which is based on the bijection between the set of…

Probability · Mathematics 2021-03-23 Fumihiko Nakano , Taizo Sadahiro

The notion of shuffle-compatible permutation statistics was implicit in Stanley's work on P-partitions and was first explicitly studied by Gessel and Zhuang. The aim of this paper is to prove that the triple ${\rm (udr, pk, des)}$ is…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2022-05-12 Lihong Yang , Sherry H. F. Yan

In the 60's, Knuth introduced stack-sorting and serial compositions of stacks. In particular, one significant question arise out of the work of Knuth: how to decide efficiently if a given permutation is sortable with 2 stacks in series?…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2013-03-20 Adeline Pierrot , Dominique Rossin

We show that all permutations in $S_n$ can be generated by affine unicritical polynomials. We use the $\operatorname{PGL}$ group structure to compute the cycle structure of permutations with low Carlitz rank. The tree structure of the group…

Number Theory · Mathematics 2021-03-22 Anna Chlopecki , Juliano Levier-Gomes , Wayne Peng , Alex Shearer , Adam Towsley

In this paper we produce noncommutative algebras derived equivalent to deformations of schemes with tilting bundles. We do this in two settings, first proving that a tilting bundle on a scheme lifts to a tilting bundle on an infinitesimal…

Algebraic Geometry · Mathematics 2015-05-18 Joseph Karmazyn

We introduce a lifting of West's stack-sorting map $s$ to partition diagrams, which are combinatorial objects indexing bases of partition algebras. Our lifting $\mathscr{S}$ of $s$ is such that $\mathscr{S}$ behaves in the same way as $s$…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-07-26 John M. Campbell

What is the smallest number of random transpositions (meaning that we swap given pairs of elements with given probabilities) that we can make on an $n$-point set to ensure that each element is uniformly distributed -- in the sense that the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2022-10-25 Barnabás Janzer , J. Robert Johnson , Imre Leader

We generalize the shuffle theorem and its $(km,kn)$ version, as conjectured by Haglund et al. and Bergeron et al., and proven by Carlsson and Mellit, and Mellit, respectively. In our version the $(km,kn)$ Dyck paths on the combinatorial…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-09-07 Jonah Blasiak , Mark Haiman , Jennifer Morse , Anna Pun , George H. Seelinger

Several sequences of free cumulants that count binary plane trees correspond to sequences of classical cumulants that count the decreasing versions of the same trees. Using two new operations on colored binary plane trees that we call…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2022-01-12 Colin Defant