Stack Sorting and Permutation Patterns

Murray Elder
Stevens Institute of Technology

Tuesday, October 10, 3:00PM
Lieb, Room 319
Stevens Institute of Technology
 

Abstract


I will discuss my recent work in the field of "pattern avoiding permutations". A permutation p_1,p_2,...,p_n of 1,2,...,n is said to contain a subpattern (213 say) if some p_{i_1},p_{i_2},p_{i_3} occur with p_{i_2} Knuth proved that if you pass a mixed-up permutation through a single infinite stack, then it can be sorted back to 1,2,...,n if and only if it does not contain a 213 subpattern. It follows that the number of such permutations is Catalan.
I will give an overview of the recent results about pattern-avoiding permutations, and give my result about sorting permutations with two stacks in series.