Beyond Alternating Permutations: Pattern Avoidance in Young Diagrams and Tableaux

We investigate pattern avoidance in alternating permutations and generalizations thereof. First, we study pattern avoidance in an alternating analogue of Young diagrams. In particular, we extend Babson-West’s notion of shape-Wilf equivalence to apply to alternating permutations and so generalize results of Backelin-West-Xin and Ouchterlony to alternating permutations. Second, we study pattern avoidance in the more general context of permutations with restricted ascents and descents. We consider a question of Lewis regarding permutations that are the reading words of thickened staircase Young tableaux, that is, permutations that have k − 1 ascents followed by a descent, followed by k − 1 ascents, et cetera. We determine the relative sizes of the sets of pattern-avoiding (k− 1)-ascent permutations in terms of the forbidden pattern. Furthermore, inequalities in the sizes of sets of pattern-avoiding permutations in this context arise from further extensions of shape-equivalence type enumerations.