A Graph Theory of Rook Placements

Two boards are rook equivalent if they have the same number of non-attacking rook placements for any number of rooks. Define a rook equivalence graph on an equivalence class of Ferrers boards by specifying that two boards are connected by an edge if you can obtain one of the boards by moving squares in the other board out of one column and into a single other column. Given such a graph, we characterize which boards will yield connected graphs. We also provide some cases where common graphs will or will not be the graph for some set of rook equivalent Ferrers boards. Finally, we extend this graph definition to the m-level rook placement generalization developed by Briggs and Remmel. This yields a graph on the set of rook equivalent singleton boards, and we characterize which singleton boards give rise to a connected graph.

Gradedness of the set of rook placements in A n−1

A rook placement is a subset of a root system consisting of positive roots with pairwise non-positive inner products. To each rook placement in a root system one can assign the coadjoint orbit of the Borel subgroup of a reductive algebraic group with this root system. Degenerations of such orbits induce a natural partial order on the set of rook placements. We study combinatorial structure of the set of rook placements in An− 1 with respect to a slightly different order and prove that this poset is graded.

Rook Placements and Jordan Forms of Upper-Triangular Nilpotent Matrices

The set of $n$ by $n$ upper-triangular nilpotent matrices with entries in a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ has Jordan canonical forms indexed by partitions $\lambda \vdash n$. We present a combinatorial formula for computing the number $F_\lambda(q)$ of matrices of Jordan type $\lambda$ as a weighted sum over standard Young tableaux. We construct a bijection between paths in a modified version of Young's lattice and non-attacking rook placements, which leads to a refinement of the formula for $F_\lambda(q)$.

On $xD$-Generalizations of Stirling Numbers and Lah Numbers via Graphs and Rooks

This paper studies the generalizations of the Stirling numbers of both kinds and the Lah numbers in association with the normal ordering problem in the Weyl algebra $W=\langle x,D|Dx-xD=1\rangle$. Any word $\omega\in W$ with $m$ $x$'s and $n$ $D$'s can be expressed in the normally ordered form $\omega=x^{m-n}\sum_{k\ge 0} {{\omega}\brace {k}} x^{k}D^{k}$, where ${{\omega}\brace {k}}$ is known as the Stirling number of the second kind for the word $\omega$. This study considers the expansions of restricted words $\omega$ in $W$ over the sequences $\{(xD)^{k}\}_{k\ge 0}$ and $\{xD^{k}x^{k-1}\}_{k\ge 0}$. Interestingly, the coefficients in individual expansions turn out to be generalizations of the Stirling numbers of the first kind and the Lah numbers. The coefficients will be determined through enumerations of some combinatorial structures linked to the words $\omega$, involving decreasing forest decompositions of quasi-threshold graphs and non-attacking rook placements on Ferrers boards. Extended to $q$-analogues, weighted refinements of the combinatorial interpretations are also investigated for words in the $q$-deformed Weyl algebra.

Bruhat Order on Fixed-Point-Free Involutions in the Symmetric Group

We provide a structural description of Bruhat order on the set $F_{2n}$ of fixed-point-free involutions in the symetric group $S_{2n}$ which yields a combinatorial proof of a combinatorial identity that is an expansion of its rank-generating function. The decomposition is accomplished via a natural poset congruence, which yields a new interpretation and proof of a combinatorial identity that counts the number of rook placements on the Ferrers boards lying under all Dyck paths of a given length $2n$. Additionally, this result extends naturally to prove new combinatorial identities that sum over other Catalan objects: 312-avoiding permutations, plane forests, and binary trees.

Bijections on m-level Rook Placements

International audience Partition the rows of a board into sets of $m$ rows called levels. An $m$-level rook placement is a subset of squares of the board with no two in the same column or the same level. We construct explicit bijections to prove three theorems about such placements. We start with two bijections between Ferrers boards having the same number of $m$-level rook placements. The first generalizes a map by Foata and Schützenberger and our proof applies to any Ferrers board. The second generalizes work of Loehr and Remmel. This construction only works for a special class of Ferrers boards but also yields a formula for calculating the rook numbers of these boards in terms of elementary symmetric functions. Finally we generalize another result of Loehr and Remmel giving a bijection between boards with the same hit numbers. The second and third bijections involve the Involution Principle of Garsia and Milne. Nous considérons les rangs d’un échiquier partagés en ensembles de $m$ rangs appelés les niveaux. Un $m$-placement des tours est un sous-ensemble des carrés du plateau tel qu’il n’y a pas deux carrés dans la même colonne ou dans le même niveau. Nous construisons deux bijections explicites entre des plateaux de Ferrers ayant les mêmes nombres de $m$-placements. La première est une généralisation d’une fonction de Foata et Schützenberger et notre démonstration est pour n’importe quels plateaux de Ferrers. La deuxième généralise une bijection de Loehr et Remmel. Cette construction marche seulement pour des plateaux particuliers, mais ça donne une formule pour le nombre de $m$-placements en terme des fonctions symétriques élémentaires. Enfin, nous généralisons un autre résultat de Loehr et Remmel donnant une bijection entre deux plateaux ayant les mêmes nombres de coups. Les deux dernières bijections utilisent le Principe des Involutions de Garsia et Milne.