English

On a conjecture on pattern-avoiding machines

Combinatorics 2023-09-14 v2

Abstract

Let ss be West's stack-sorting map, and let sTs_{T} be the generalized stack-sorting map, where instead of being required to increase, the stack avoids subpermutations that are order-isomorphic to any permutation in the set TT. In 2020, Cerbai, Claesson, and Ferrari introduced the σ\sigma-machine ssσs \circ s_{\sigma} as a generalization of West's 22-stack-sorting-map sss \circ s. As a further generalization, in 2021, Baril, Cerbai, Khalil, and Vajnovski introduced the (σ,τ)(\sigma, \tau)-machine ssσ,τs \circ s_{\sigma, \tau} and enumerated \Sortn(σ,τ)|\Sort_{n}(\sigma,\tau)| -- the number of permutations in SnS_n that are mapped to the identity by the (σ,τ)(\sigma, \tau)-machine -- for six pairs of length 33 permutations (σ,τ)(\sigma, \tau). In this work, we settle a conjecture by Baril, Cerbai, Khalil, and Vajnovski on the only remaining pair of length 33 patterns (σ,τ)=(132,321)(\sigma, \tau) = (132, 321) for which \Sortn(σ,τ)|\Sort_{n}(\sigma, \tau)| appears in the OEIS. In addition, we enumerate \Sortn(123,321)|\Sort_n(123, 321)|, which does not appear in the OEIS, but has a simple closed form.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.09344,
  title  = {On a conjecture on pattern-avoiding machines},
  author = {Christopher Bao and Giulio Cerbai and Yunseo Choi and Katelyn Gan and Owen Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.09344},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T11:58:28.858Z