Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Huibregtse, Mark, Lemus-Vidales, Cristobal, Vella, David
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02030
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866916879166078976
author Huibregtse, Mark
Lemus-Vidales, Cristobal
Vella, David
author_facet Huibregtse, Mark
Lemus-Vidales, Cristobal
Vella, David
contents We study the process of bootstrap percolation on n x n permutation matrices, inspired by the work of Shapiro and Stephens [5]. In this percolation model, cells mutate (from 0 to 1) if at least two of their cardinal neighbors contain a 1, and thereafter remain unchanged; the process continues until no further mutations are possible. After carefully analyzing this process, we consider how it interacts with the notion of (in)decomposable permutations. We prove that the number of indecomposable permutations whose matrices "fill up'' to contain all 1's (or are "full") is half of the total number of full permutations. This leads to a new proof of a key result in [5], that the number of full n x n permutations is the (n-1)st large Schroeder number. Finally, after rigorously justifying a heuristic argument in [5], we find a new formula for the number of n x n "no growth" permutations, and hence a new solution to the well-known n-kings problem.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_02030
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bootstrap Percolation, Indecomposable Permutations, and the n-Kings problem
Huibregtse, Mark
Lemus-Vidales, Cristobal
Vella, David
Combinatorics
05A15
We study the process of bootstrap percolation on n x n permutation matrices, inspired by the work of Shapiro and Stephens [5]. In this percolation model, cells mutate (from 0 to 1) if at least two of their cardinal neighbors contain a 1, and thereafter remain unchanged; the process continues until no further mutations are possible. After carefully analyzing this process, we consider how it interacts with the notion of (in)decomposable permutations. We prove that the number of indecomposable permutations whose matrices "fill up'' to contain all 1's (or are "full") is half of the total number of full permutations. This leads to a new proof of a key result in [5], that the number of full n x n permutations is the (n-1)st large Schroeder number. Finally, after rigorously justifying a heuristic argument in [5], we find a new formula for the number of n x n "no growth" permutations, and hence a new solution to the well-known n-kings problem.
title Bootstrap Percolation, Indecomposable Permutations, and the n-Kings problem
topic Combinatorics
05A15
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02030