k-noncrossing and k-nonnesting graphs and fillings of Ferrers diagrams

Abstract

We give a correspondence between graphs with a given degree sequence and fillings of Ferrers diagrams by nonnegative integers with prescribed row and column sums. In this setting, k-crossings and k-nestings of the graph become occurrences of the identity and the antiidentity matrices in the filling. We use this to show the equality of the numbers of k-noncrossing and k-nonnesting graphs with a given degree sequence. This generalizes the analogous result for matchings and partition graphs of Chen, Deng, Du, Stanley, and Yan, and extends results of Klazar to k>2. Moreover, this correspondence reinforces the links recently discovered by Krattenthaler between fillings of diagrams and the results of Chen et al.