Plane posets, special posets, and permutations

Abstract

We study the self-dual Hopf algebra $\h\_{\SP}$ of special posets introduced by Malvenuto and Reutenauer and the Hopf algebra morphism from $\h\_{\SP}$ to to the Hopf algebra of free quasi-symmetric functions $\FQSym$ given by linear extensions. In particular, we construct two Hopf subalgebras both isomorphic to $\FQSym$; the first one is based on plane posets, the second one on heap-ordered forests. An explicit isomorphism between these two Hopf subalgebras is also defined with the help of two transformations on special posets. The restriction of the Hopf pairing of $\h\_{\SP}$ to these Hopf subalgebras and others is also studied, as well as certain isometries between them. These problems are solved using duplicial and dendriform structures.An error in Section 7 has been noticed by Darij Grinberg, and the text has been modified accordingly.