Cyclic Descents and P-Partitions

Louis Solomon showed that the group algebra of the symmetric group Sn has a subalgebra called the descent algebra, generated by sums of permutations with a given descent set. In fact, he showed that every Coxeter group has something that can be called a descent algebra. There is also a commutative, semisimple subalgebra of Solomon’s descent algebra generated by sums of permutations with the same number of descents: an “Eulerian” descent algebra. For any Coxeter group that is also a Weyl group, Paola Cellini proved the existence of a different Eulerian subalgebra based on a modified definition of descent. We derive the existence of Cellini’s subalgebra for the case of the symmetric group and of the hyperoctahedral group using a variation on Richard Stanley’s theory of P-partitions.