Corners in tree-like tableaux

Abstract

In this paper, we study tree--like tableaux, combinatorial objects which exhibit a natural tree structure and are connected to the partially asymmetric simple exclusion process (PASEP). There was a conjecture made on the total number of corners in tree--like tableaux and the total number of corners in symmetric tree--like tableaux. In this paper, we prove the first conjecture leaving the proof of the second conjecture to the full version of this paper. Our proofs are based on the bijection with permutation tableaux or type--B permutation tableaux and consequently, we also prove results for these tableaux.