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This paper views clusterings as elements of a lattice. Distances between clusterings are analyzed in their relationship to the lattice. From this vantage point, we first give an axiomatic characterization of some criteria for comparing clusterings, including the variation of information and the unadjusted Rand index. Then we study other distances between partitions w.r.t these axioms and prove an impossibility result: there is no “sensible” criterion for comparing clusterings that is simultaneously (1) aligned with the lattice of partitions, (2) convexely additive, and (3) bounded. 1.

A combinatorial Hopf algebra is a graded connected Hopf algebra over a field k equipped with a character (multiplicative linear functional) ζ: H → k. We show that the terminal object in the category of combinatorial Hopf algebras is the algebra QSym of quasi-symmetric functions; this explains the ubiquity of quasi-symmetric functions as generating functions in combinatorics. We illustrate this with several examples. We prove that every character decomposes uniquely as a product of an even character and an odd character. Correspondingly, every combinatorial Hopf algebra (H, ζ) possesses two canonical Hopf subalgebras on which the character ζ is even (respectively, odd). The odd subalgebra is defined by certain canonical relations which we call the generalized Dehn-Sommerville relations. We show that, for H = QSym, the generalized Dehn-Sommerville relations are the Bayer-Billera relations and the odd subalgebra is the peak Hopf algebra of Stembridge. We prove that QSym is the product (in the categorical sense) of its even and odd Hopf subalgebras. We also calculate the odd subalgebras of various related combinatorial Hopf algebras: the Malvenuto-Reutenauer Hopf algebra of permutations, the

Abstract. This paper reviews known results which connect Riemann’s integral representations of his zeta function, involving Jacobi’s theta function and its derivatives, to some particular probability laws governing sums of independent exponential variables. These laws are related to one-dimensional Brownian motion and to higher dimensional Bessel processes. We present some characterizations of these probability laws, and some approximations of Riemann’s zeta function which are related to these laws. Contents

Finding the maximum a posteriori (MAP) assignment of a discrete-state distribution specified by a graphical model requires solving an integer program. The max-product algorithm, also known as the max-plus or min-sum algorithm, is an iterative method for (approximately) solving such a problem on graphs with cycles.

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Abstract. We present results on the enumeration of crossings and nestings for matchings and set partitions. Using a bijection between partitions and vacillating tableaux, we show that if we fix the sets of minimal block elements and maximal block elements, the crossing number and the nesting number of partitions have a symmetric joint distribution. It follows that the crossing numbers and the nesting numbers are distributed symmetrically over all partitions of [n], as well as over all matchings on [2n]. As a corollary, the number of knoncrossing partitions is equal to the number of k-nonnesting partitions. The same is also true for matchings. An application is given to the enumeration of matchings with no k-crossing (or with no k-nesting). 1.

Abstract. We analyze the structure of the Malvenuto-Reutenauer Hopf algebra SSym of permutations in detail. We give explicit formulas for its antipode, prove that it is a cofree coalgebra, determine its primitive elements and its coradical filtration, and show that it decomposes as a crossed product over the Hopf algebra of quasi-symmetric functions. In addition, we describe the structure constants of the multiplication as a certain number of facets of the permutahedron. As a consequence we obtain a new interpretation of the product of monomial quasi-symmetric functions in terms of the facial structure of the cube. The Hopf algebra of Malvenuto and Reutenauer has a linear basis indexed by permutations. Our results are obtained from a combinatorial description of the Hopf algebraic structure with respect to a new basis for this algebra, related to the original one via Möbius inversion on the weak order on the symmetric groups. This is in analogy with the relationship between the monomial and fundamental bases of the algebra of quasi-symmetric functions. Our results reveal a close relationship between the structure of the Malvenuto-Reutenauer Hopf algebra and the weak order on the symmetric groups.

Partition-valued and measure-valued coalescent Markov processes are constructed whose state describes the decomposition of a finite total mass m into a finite or countably infinite number of masses with sum m, and whose evolution is determined by the following intuitive prescription: each pair of masses of magnitudes x and y runs the risk of a binary collision to form a single mass of magnitude x+y at rate (x; y), for some non-negative, symmetric collision rate kernel (x; y). Such processes with finitely many masses have been used to model polymerization, coagulation, condensation, and the evolution of galactic clusters by gravitational attraction. With a suitable choice of state space, and under appropriate restrictions on and the initial distribution of mass, it is shown that such processes can be constructed as Feller or Feller-like processes. A number of further results are obtained for the additive coalescent with collision kernel (x; y) = x + y. This process, which arises fro...

We introduce the polytope of pointed pseudo-triangulations of a point set in the plane, defined as the polytope of infinitesimal expansive motions of the points subject to certain constraints on the increase of their distances. Its 1-skeleton is the graph whose vertices are the pointed pseudo-triangulations of the point set and whose edges are flips of interior pseudo-triangulation edges. For points in convex position we obtain a new realization of the associahedron, i.e., a geometric representation of the set of triangulations of an n-gon, or of the set of binary trees on n vertices, or of many other combinatorial objects that are counted by the Catalan numbers. By considering the 1-dimensional version of the polytope of constrained expansive motions we obtain a second distinct realization of the associahedron as a perturbation of the positive cell in a Coxeter arrangement. Our methods produce as a by-product a new proof that every simple polygon or polygonal arc in the plane has expansive motions, a key step in the proofs of