English

On the M\"{o}bius function of permutations under the pattern containment order

Combinatorics 2020-12-29 v1

Abstract

We study several aspects of the M\"{o}bius function, μ[σ,π]\mu[\sigma,\pi], on the poset of permutations under the pattern containment order. First, we consider cases where the lower bound of the poset is indecomposable. We show that μ[σ,π]\mu[\sigma,\pi] can be computed by considering just the indecomposable permutations contained in the upper bound. We apply this to the case where the upper bound is an increasing oscillation, and give a method for computing the value of the M\"{o}bius function that only involves evaluating simple inequalities. We then consider conditions on an interval which guarantee that the value of the M\"{o}bius function is zero. In particular, we show that if a permutation π\pi contains two intervals of length 2, which are not order-isomorphic to one another, then μ[1,π]=0\mu[1,\pi] = 0. This allows us to prove that the proportion of permutations of length nn with principal M\"{o}bius function equal to zero is asymptotically bounded below by (11/e)20.3995(1-1/e)^2 \ge 0.3995. This is the first result determining the value of μ[1,π]\mu[1,\pi] for an asymptotically positive proportion of permutations π\pi. Following this, we use ''2413-balloon'' permutations to show that the growth of the principal M\"{o}bius function on the permutation poset is exponential. This improves on previous work, which has shown that the growth is at least polynomial. We then generalise 2413-balloon permutations, and find a recursion for the value of the principal M\"{o}bius function of these generalisations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2012.13795,
  title  = {On the M\"{o}bius function of permutations under the pattern containment order},
  author = {David Marchant},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.13795},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

David Marchant's PhD Thesis, The Open University, 2020. 186 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T21:26:30.677Z