Pinnacle Set Properties

TL;DR

This paper simplifies the understanding of pinnacle sets in permutations, proves their enumeration corresponds to binomial coefficients, and introduces faster formulas for counting permutations with given pinnacle sets.

Contribution

The authors provide a simpler proof of the pinnacle set enumeration, establish that certain pinnacle set counts are ballot numbers, and develop more efficient formulas for permutation counts.

Findings

Pinnacle set counts are binomial coefficients.

Number of pinnacle sets with maximum m and size d are ballot numbers.

New faster formulas for counting permutations with specified pinnacle sets.

Abstract

Let pi = pi_1 pi_2 ... pi_n be a permutation in the symmetric group S_n written in one-line notation. The pinnacle set of pi, denoted Pin pi, is the set of all pi_i such that pi_{i-1} < pi_i > pi_{i+1}. This is an analogue of the well-studied peak set of pi where one considers values rather than positions. The pinnacle set was introduced by Davis, Nelson, Petersen, and Tenner who showed that it has many interesting properties. In particular, they proved that the number of subsets of [n] = {1, 2, ..., n} which can be the pinnacle set of some permutation is a binomial coefficient. Their proof involved a bijection with lattice paths and was somewhat involved. We give a simpler demonstration of this result which does not need lattice paths. Moreover, we show that our map and theirs are different descriptions of the same function. Davis et al. also studied the number of pinnacle sets with maximum m and cardinality d which they denoted by p(m,d). We show that these integers are ballot numbers and give two proofs of this fact: one using finite differences and one bijective. Diaz-Lopez, Harris, Huang, Insko, and Nilsen found a summation formula for calculating the number of permutations in S_n having a given pinnacle set. We derive a new expression for this number which is faster to calculate in many cases. We also show how this method can be adapted to find the number of orderings of a pinnacle set which can be realized by some pi in S_n.