Refining enumeration schemes to count according to permutation statistics

Andrew M. Baxter

Published 2014-01-01Version 1

We consider the question of computing the distribution of a permutation statistics over restricted permutations via enumeration schemes. The restricted permutations are those avoiding sets of vincular patterns (which include both classical and consecutive patterns), and the statistics are described in the number of copies of certain vincular patterns such as the descent statistic and major index. An enumeration scheme is a polynomial-time algorithm (specifically, a system of recurrence relations) to compute the number of permutations avoiding a given set of vincular patterns. Enumeration schemes' most notable feature is that they may be discovered and proven via only finite computation. We prove that when a finite enumeration scheme exists to compute the number of permutations avoiding a given set of vincular patterns, the scheme can also compute the distribution of certain permutation statistics with very little extra computation.