Conferences in the Mathematical Sciences -- Permutation Patterns 2014, July 7-11, 2014

East Tennessee State University, Johnson City TN

Investigators

Abstract

This award is providing funds to support the conference "Permutation Patterns 2014" (http://www.etsu.edu/cas/math/pp2014), which will be held July 7-11, 2014 at East Tennessee State University. Permutation Patterns is a subject that has become an established branch of Combinatorics over the last two decades. Much of the research in the area has centered on classes of permutations that are avoiding, i.e., each permutation in such a class avoids certain sets of subsequences. It turns out that pattern avoidance arises naturally in theoretical computer science to characterize the set of possible outputs of many natural sorting devices, such as stacks; in fact Knuth's result that a list is one-stack sortable if and only it avoids the pattern 231 is considered to be one of the cornerstones of the rich theory of permutation patterns. Current new research involves areas such as complexity theory and theoretical computer science. The conference series "Permutation Patterns" has been held annually since 2003, and has attracted a community of researchers in enumerative, analytic, algebraic and probabilistic combinatorics, all with common interest in research questions that revolve around pattern avoidance or containment in permutations or words. The numbers of women, undergraduate and graduate students, and early career faculty who attend this conference have increased steadily over the years. Indeed, nurturing and mentoring of such mathematicians has been a significant part of the conference mission. Eight students from the PI's summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates program will attend the conference in 2014, as might past participants from the program. Award funds are dedicated to supporting participation of US citizens and permanent residents.