Patterns in Inversion Sequences II: Inversion Sequences Avoiding Triples of Relations

Abstract

Inversion sequences of length $n$, $\mathbf{I}_n$, are integer sequences $(e_1, \ldots, e_n)$ with $0 \leq e_i < n$ for each $i$. The study of patterns in inversion sequences was initiated recently by Mansour-Shattuck and Corteel-Martinez-Savage-Weselcouch through a systematic study of inversion sequences avoiding words of length 3. We continue this investigation by generalizing the notion of a pattern to a fixed triple of binary relations $(\rho_1,\rho_2,\rho_3)$ and consider the set $\mathbf{I}_n(\rho_1,\rho_2,\rho_3)$ consisting of those $e \in \mathbf{I}_n$ with no $i < j < k$ such that $e_i \rho_1 e_j$, $e_j \rho_2 e_k$, and $e_i \rho_3 e_k$. We show that "avoiding a triple of relations" can characterize inversion sequences with a variety of monotonicity or unimodality conditions, or with multiplicity constraints on the elements. We uncover several interesting enumeration results and relate pattern avoiding inversion sequences to familiar combinatorial families. We highlight open questions about the relationship between pattern avoiding inversion sequences and families such as plane permutations and Baxter permutations. For several combinatorial sequences, pattern avoiding inversion sequences provide a simpler interpretation than otherwise known.