P1: JSN/PCY P2: JVS Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics KL600-04-Dulucq June 30, 1998 10:14 Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics 8 (1998), 169–191 c 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Manufactured in The Netherlands. Combinatorial Statistics on Alternating Permutations SERGE DULUCQ
[email protected] LaBRI, Universite´ Bordeaux I, 351 cours de la Liberation,´ 30455 Talence, France RODICA SIMION
[email protected] Department of Mathematics, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052 Received February 7, 1996; Revised April 23, 1997 Abstract. We consider two combinatorial statistics on permutations. One is the genus. The other, des, is defined for alternating permutations, as the sum of the number of descents in the subwords formed by the peaks and the valleys. We investigate the distribution of des on genus zero permutations and Baxter permutations. Ourc q- enumerative results relate the des statistic to lattice path enumeration, the rank generating function and characteristic polynomial of noncrossing partition lattices, and polytopesc obtained as face-figures of the associahedron. c Keywords: lattice path, permutation, associahedron, Catalan, Schr¨oder 1. Introduction We introduce a variation, des, of the descent statistic for permutations, defined for alternating permutations, which we apply to alternating permutations of genus zero and to alternating Baxter permutations. Whilec the original motivation for defining des was to elucidate the equinumerosity of genus zero alternating permutations and Schr¨oder paths, it turns out that des enjoys further equidistribution properties related to noncrossingc partition lattices and face-figures of the associahedron. Our results involve q-analogues of the Catalan and Schr¨oderc numbers, and include extensions of previous work in [5, 9].