Related papers: Disarray, reduced words, and 321-avoidance in Geor…
A permutation in a digraph $G=(V, E)$ is a bijection $f:V \rightarrow V$ such that for all $v \in V$ we either have that $f$ fixes $v$ or $(v, f(v)) \in E$. A derangement in $G$ is a permutation that does not fix any vertex. In [1] it is…
We consider the following novel variation on a classical avoidance problem from combinatorics on words: instead of avoiding repetitions in all factors of a word, we avoid repetitions in all factors where each individual factor is considered…
We prove that the class of 231-avoiding permutations satisfies a logical limit law, i.e. that for any first-order sentence $\Psi$, in the language of two total orders, the probability $p_{n,\Psi}$ that a uniform random 231-avoiding…
We extend the concept of pattern avoidance in permutations on a totally ordered set to pattern avoidance in permutations on partially ordered sets. The number of permutations on $P$ that avoid the pattern $\pi$ is denoted $Av_P(\pi)$. We…
Given an infinite linear group with a finite set of generators, we show that the shortest word length of an element of infinite order has an upper bound that depends only on the number of generators and the degree. This provides a…
The periodic (ordinal) patterns of a map are the permutations realized by the relative order of the points in its periodic orbits. We give a combinatorial characterization of the periodic patterns of an arbitrary signed shift, in terms of…
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…
An open conjecture in pattern avoidance theory is that the distribution of the major index among 321-avoiding permutations is distributed unimodally. We construct a formula for this distribution, and in the case of 2 descents prove…
The most well-known Gray code of permutations is plain changes. It was discovered in the 1600s by bell-ringers who wished to order the permutations of [n] by swaps (e.g., 123, 132, 312, 321, 231, 213 for n = 3). In other words, plain…
In this note we present a characterisation of all unary and binary patterns that do not only contain variables, but also reversals of their instances. These types of variables were studied recently in either more general or particular…
Permutations are usually enumerated by size, but new results can be found by enumerating them by inversions instead, in which case one must restrict one's attention to indecomposable permutations. In the style of the seminal paper by Simion…
We prove a broad generalization of a theorem of W. Burnside on real characters using permutation characters. Under a necessary hypothesis, We can give some control on multiplicities (a result that needs the Classification of Finite Simple…
We study subshift that arise by excluding words of length two from Dyck shifts. The words that are to be excluded are taken from a finite set that is not literal-uniform.
An attractive mechanism to specify global constraints in rostering and other domains is via formal languages. For instance, the Regular and Grammar constraints specify constraints in terms of the languages accepted by an automaton and a…
Efficiency of routing on a regular digraph often involves finding opitmal properties of the graph. For example, the diameter of a digraph is the maximum distance between any two vertices. We show how we can study these problems…
Abductive explanations (AXp's) are widely used for understanding decisions of classifiers. Existing definitions are suitable when features are independent. However, we show that ignoring constraints when they exist between features may lead…
Consider an element~$x$ of a Garside group which is rigid in the sense of Garside-theory. Let $SC(x)$ be the set of rigid conjugates of~$x$ -- this is a well-known characteristic subset of the conjugacy class of~$x$. We present…
In this paper, we consider the problem of guessing a sequence subject to a distortion constraint. Specifically, we assume the following game between Alice and Bob: Alice has a sequence $\bx$ of length $n$. Bob wishes to guess $\bx$, yet he…
We study the impact of certain identities and probabilistic identities on the structure of finite groups. More specifically, let $w$ be a nontrivial word in $d$ distinct variables and let $G$ be a finite group for which the word map…
A wide range of constraints can be compactly specified using automata or formal languages. In a sequence of recent papers, we have shown that an effective means to reason with such specifications is to decompose them into primitive…