Genlex Gray codes for $S_n$ with the fewest operations: classification and symmetry

Abstract

A Gray code for $S_n$ is \emph{genlex} when words sharing a suffix are consecutive. We determine the genlex Gray codes for $S_n$ that use the fewest possible operations: Zaks' recursion generalises to a superfactorial family of such codes, and no code outside this family attains the minimum. Every code in the family closes into a cycle, and the cycle is invariant under a group of left translations, cyclic of order $n$ or dihedral of order $2n$ according to an explicit criterion on the operations. In the pancake graph the family reduces to a single member, the classical Zaks order; with respect to the standard parabolic chain of $W(A_{n-1})$, that order attains one extreme of total Coxeter length.