A Bijection for the Boolean Numbers of Ferrers Graphs

In this note we prove a new characterization of the derangement sets of Ferrers graphs and present a bijection between the derangement sets and $$F_{\lambda }$$ F λ -Callan sequences. In particular, this connection reveals that the boolean numbers of the complete bipartite graphs are the D-relatives of poly-Bernoulli numbers.

Biconed Graphs, Weighted Forests, and $h$-Vectors of Matroid Complexes

A well-known conjecture of Richard Stanley posits that the $h$-vector of the independence complex of a matroid is a pure ${\mathcal O}$-sequence. The conjecture has been established for various classes but is open for graphic matroids. A biconed graph is a graph with two specified 'coning vertices', such that every vertex of the graph is connected to at least one coning vertex. The class of biconed graphs includes coned graphs, Ferrers graphs, and complete multipartite graphs. We study the $h$-vectors of graphic matroids arising from biconed graphs, providing a combinatorial interpretation of their entries in terms of '$2$-weighted forests' of the underlying graph. This generalizes constructions of Kook and Lee who studied the Möbius coinvariant (the last nonzero entry of the $h$-vector) of graphic matroids of complete bipartite graphs. We show that allowing for partially $2$-weighted forests gives rise to a pure multicomplex whose face count recovers the $h$-vector, establishing Stanley's conjecture for this class of matroids. We also discuss how our constructions relate to a combinatorial strengthening of Stanley's Conjecture (due to Klee and Samper) for this class of matroids.

On the Betti numbers of edge ideals of skew Ferrers graphs

We prove that [Formula: see text] for any staircase skew Ferrers graph [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. As a consequence, Ene et al. conjecture is confirmed to hold true for the Betti numbers in the last column of the Betti table in a particular case. An explicit formula for the unique extremal Betti number of the binomial edge ideal of some closed graphs is also given.

Permutation Graphs and the Abelian Sandpile Model, Tiered Trees and Non-Ambiguous Binary Trees

A permutation graph is a graph whose edges are given by inversions of a permutation. We study the Abelian sandpile model (ASM) on such graphs. We exhibit a bijection between recurrent configurations of the ASM on permutation graphs and the tiered trees introduced by Dugan et al. [10]. This bijection allows certain parameters of the recurrent configurations to be read on the corresponding tree. In particular, we show that the level of a recurrent configuration can be interpreted as the external activity of the corresponding tree, so that the bijection exhibited provides a new proof of a famous result linking the level polynomial of the ASM to the ubiquitous Tutte polynomial. We show that the set of minimal recurrent configurations is in bijection with the set of complete non-ambiguous binary trees introduced by Aval et al. [2], and introduce a multi-rooted generalization of these that we show to correspond to all recurrent configurations. In the case of permutations with a single descent, we recover some results from the case of Ferrers graphs presented in [11], while we also recover results of Perkinson et al. [16] in the case of threshold graphs.

EW-Tableaux, Le-Tableaux, Tree-Like Tableaux and the Abelian Sandpile Model

A EW-tableau is a certain 0/1-filling of a Ferrers diagram, corresponding uniquely to an acyclic orientation, with a unique sink, of a certain bipartite graph called a Ferrers graph. We give a bijective proof of a result of Ehrenborg and van Willigenburg showing that EW-tableaux of a given shape are equinumerous with permutations with a given set of excedances. This leads to an explicit bijection between EW-tableaux and the much studied Le-tableaux, as well as the tree-like tableaux introduced by Aval, Boussicault and Nadeau.We show that the set of EW-tableaux on a given Ferrers diagram are in 1-1 correspondence with the minimal recurrent configurations of the Abelian sandpile model on the corresponding Ferrers graph.Another bijection between EW-tableaux and tree-like tableaux, via spanning trees on the corresponding Ferrers graphs, connects the tree-like tableaux to the minimal recurrent configurations of the Abelian sandpile model on these graphs. We introduce a variation on the EW-tableaux, which we call NEW-tableaux, and present bijections from these to Le-tableaux and tree-like tableaux. We also present results on various properties of and statistics on EW-tableaux and NEW-tableaux, as well as some open problems on these.

Algebraic Properties of Edge Ideals via Combinatorial Topology

We apply some basic notions from combinatorial topology to establish various algebraic properties of edge ideals of graphs and more general Stanley-Reisner rings. In this way we provide new short proofs of some theorems from the literature regarding linearity, Betti numbers, and (sequentially) Cohen-Macaulay properties of edge ideals associated to chordal, complements of chordal, and Ferrers graphs, as well as trees and forests. Our approach unifies (and in many cases strengthens) these results and also provides combinatorial/enumerative interpretations of certain algebraic properties. We apply our setup to obtain new results regarding algebraic properties of edge ideals in the context of local changes to a graph (adding whiskers and ears) as well as bounded vertex degree. These methods also lead to recursive relations among certain generating functions of Betti numbers which we use to establish new formulas for the projective dimension of edge ideals. We use only well-known tools from combinatorial topology along the lines of independence complexes of graphs, (not necessarily pure) vertex decomposability, shellability, etc.

Betti Numbers of Monomial Ideals and Shifted Skew Shapes

We present two new problems on lower bounds for Betti numbers of the minimal free resolution for monomial ideals generated in a fixed degree. The first concerns any such ideal and bounds the total Betti numbers, while the second concerns ideals that are quadratic and bihomogeneous with respect to two variable sets, but gives a more finely graded lower bound. These problems are solved for certain classes of ideals that generalize (in two different directions) the edge ideals of threshold graphs and Ferrers graphs. In the process, we produce particularly simple cellular linear resolutions for strongly stable and squarefree strongly stable ideals generated in a fixed degree, and combinatorial interpretations for the Betti numbers of other classes of ideals, all of which are independent of the coefficient field.