From Fibonacci to Catalan permutations

Abstract

It is well known that permutations avoiding any 3-length pattern are enumerated by the Catalan numbers. If the three patterns 123, 132 and 213 are avoided at the same time we obtain a class of permutations enumerated by the Fibonacci numbers. We start from these permutations and make one or two forbidden patterns disappear by suitably "generalizing" them. In such a way we find several classes of permutations enumerated by integer sequences which lay between the Fibonacci and Catalan numbers. For each class, we provide the generating function according to the length of the permutations. Moreover, as a result, we introduce a sort of "continuity" among the number sequences enumerating these classes of permutations.