Penn Arts & Sciences Logo

CAGE: Philadelphia Area Combinatorics and Alg. Geometry Seminar

Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 4:30pm

Richard Ehrenborg

Univ. of Kentucky and IAS

Location

University of Pennsylvania

DRL 4C6

The d-divisible partition lattice is the collection of all partitions of an n-element set where each block size is divisible by d. Stanley showed that the Mobius function of the d-divisible partition lattice is given (up to a sign) by the number of permutations on n-1 elements where every dth position is a descent. Wachs showed that this lattice has an EL-shelling, and hence obtained as a corollary that the homotopy type of the order complex is a wedge of spheres. Finally, Calderbank, Hanlon and Robinson considered the action of the symmetric group on the top homology group and showed it is a Specht module of a border strip corresponding to the composition (d, ..., d,d-1). Using a different proof approach, we will generalize these results to any descent pattern.

This is joint work with JiYoon Jung.