Prolific structures in combinatorial classes
Tannock, Murray

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Tannock, M. (2020). Prolific structures in combinatorial classes (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy). University of Otago. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10523/10463
Permanent link to OUR Archive version:
http://hdl.handle.net/10523/10463
Abstract:
Under what circumstances might every extension of a combinatorial structure contain more copies of another one than the original did? This property, which we call prolificity, holds universally in some cases (e.g., finite linear orders) and only trivially in others (e.g., permutations). Integer compositions, or equivalently layered permutations, provide a middle ground. In that setting, there are prolific compositions for a given pattern if and only if that pattern begins and ends with 1. For each pattern, there are methods that identify conditions that allow classification of the texts that are prolific for the pattern. This notion is also extendable to other combinatorial classes. In the context of permutations that are sums of cycles we can also establish minimal elements for the set of prolific permutations based on the bijective correspondence between these permutations and compositions, with a slightly different containment order. We also take a brief step into the more general world of permutations that avoid the pattern 321 and attempt to establish some preliminary results.
Date:
2020
Advisor:
Albert, Michael; Aldred, Robert
Degree Name:
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree Discipline:
Computer Science
Publisher:
University of Otago
Keywords:
prolific; pattern; permutation; integer composition; mathematics; combinatorics; discrete mathematics
Research Type:
Thesis
Languages:
English
Collections
- Computer Science [83]
- Thesis - Doctoral [3089]