The Relation between Composability and Splittability of Permutation Classes

Abstract

A permutation class $C$ is said to be splittable if there exist two proper subclasses $A, B \subsetneq C$ such that any $\sigma \in C$ can be red-blue colored so that the red (respectively, blue) subsequence of $\sigma$ is order isomorphic to an element of $A$ (respectively, $B$). The class $C$ is said to be composable if there exists some number of proper subclasses $A_1, \dots, A_k \subsetneq C$ such that any $\sigma \in C$ can be written as $\alpha_1 \circ \dots \circ \alpha_k$ for some $\alpha_i \in A_i$. We answer a question of Karpilovskij by showing that there exists a composable permutation class that is not splittable. We also give a condition under which an infinite composable class must be splittable.