Caylerian polynomials

Abstract

The Eulerian polynomials enumerate permutations according to their number of descents. We initiate the study of descent polynomials over Cayley permutations, which we call Caylerian polynomials. Some classical results are generalized by linking Caylerian polynomials to Burge words and Burge matrices. The $\gamma$-nonegativity of the two-sided Eulerian polynomials is reformulated in terms of Burge structures. Finally, Cayley permutations with a prescribed ascent set are shown to be counted by Burge matrices with fixed row sums.