Simulations of random permutations from the staircase reduced word

Simulations of random permutations from the staircase reduced word, based on the paper [45].

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Plot of the Marchenko-Pastur distribution for different values of lambda, by Mario Geiger

MATH 8380 • Random Matrices

[Spring 2025 semester]
The Young-Fibonacci lattice and cotransition weights defined by an arbitrary harmonic function

Random Fibonacci Words via Clone Schur Functions

[2024/12/28]

We investigate positivity and probabilistic properties arising from the Young-Fibonacci lattice $\mathbb{YF}$, a 1-differential poset on binary words composed of 1’s and 2’s (known as Fibonacci words). Building on Okada’s theory of clone Schur functions (Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 346 (1994), 549-568), we introduce clone coherent measures on $\mathbb{YF}$ which give rise to random Fibonacci words of increasing length. Unlike coherent systems associated to classical Schur functions on the Young lattice of integer partitions, clone coherent measures are generally not extremal on $\mathbb{YF}$.

Our first main result is a complete characterization of Fibonacci positive specializations - parameter sequences which yield positive clone Schur functions on $\mathbb{YF}$. We connect Fibonacci positivity with total positivity of tridiagonal matrices, Stieltjes moment sequences, and orthogonal polynomials in one variable from the ($q$-)Askey scheme.

Our second family of results concerns the asymptotic behavior of random Fibonacci words derived from various Fibonacci positive specializations. We analyze several limiting regimes for specific examples, revealing stick-breaking-like processes (connected to GEM distributions), dependent stick-breaking processes of a new type, or discrete limits tied to the Martin boundary of the Young-Fibonacci lattice. Our stick-breaking-like scaling limits significantly extend the result of Gnedin-Kerov (Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 129 (2000), no. 3, 433-446) on asymptotics of the Plancherel measure on $\mathbb{YF}$.

We also establish Cauchy-like identities for clone Schur functions (with the right-hand side given by a quadridiagonal determinant), and construct and analyze models of random permutations and involutions based on Fibonacci positive specializations and a version of the Robinson-Schensted correspondence for $\mathbb{YF}$.

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How we can use AI in Math work

These are the slides for the talk I gave at the University of Virginia on October 10, 2024 about how we can use AI in Math work.

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How we can use AI in Math work - talk slides

Slides for the talk "How we can use AI in Math work" (October 2024 at UVA)

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A random pipe dream and its coloring leading to the Grothendieck random permutation

Grothendieck Shenanigans

The story started with a problem of Stanley from his 2017 paper “Some Schubert shenanigans”: what is the asymptotically maximal value of a principal specialization of a Schubert polynomial S_w, and what does the corresponding permutation w look like? While this question is still out of reach, we investigate its variant for nonsymmetric Grothendieck polynomials. We analyze the asymptotic behavior of random permutations whose probabilities are proportional to the Grothendieck polynomials using TASEP and tools from integrable probability. The typical behavior of these permutations is described by a specific permuton (a continuous analog of a permutation). We also examine a family of atypical layered permutations that achieve the same asymptotically maximal weight.

Based on the joint work with A.H. Morales, G. Panova, and D. Yeliussizov.

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Yang-Baxter equation meets Young diagrams

Hook-length Formulas for Skew Shapes via Contour Integrals and Vertex Models

[2024/09/26]

The number of standard Young tableaux of a skew shape $\lambda/\mu$ can be computed as a sum over excited diagrams inside $\lambda$. Excited diagrams are in bijection with certain lozenge tilings, with flagged semistandard tableaux and also nonintersecting lattice paths inside $\lambda$. We give two new proofs of a multivariate generalization of this formula, which allow us to extend the setup beyond standard Young tableaux and the underlying Schur symmetric polynomials. The first proof uses multiple contour integrals. The second one interprets excited diagrams as configurations of a six-vertex model at a free fermion point, and derives the formula for the number of standard Young tableaux of a skew shape from the Yang-Baxter equation.

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