Cyclic descents for Motzkin paths (Q6041572)

Given a permutation \(\pi\) on \([n] := \{1, \dots, n\}\), there is a well-known notion of the descent set \(\mathsf{Des}(\pi)\), namely \[ \{i \in [n - 1] : \pi(i) > \pi(i + 1)\}. \] Note that \(n\) cannot be a descent of \(\pi\). The notion of cyclic descent introduced by \textit{P. Cellini} [Eur. J. Comb. 19, No. 5, 545--552 (1998; Zbl 0931.20012)] extends that of descent by also allowing \(n\) to be a descent. Namely, the cyclic descent set \(\mathsf{cDes}(\pi)\) is defined by \[ \mathsf{cDes}(\pi) := \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} \mathsf{Des}(\pi) \cup \{n\} & \pi(n) > \pi(1),\\ \mathsf{Des}(\pi) & \pi(n) < \pi(1). \end{array} \right. \] There are notions of descent for other combinatorial objects besides permutations. \textit{R. M. Adin} et al. [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2020, No. 24, 10231--10276 (2020; Zbl 1459.05339)] abstracted from this set-up by defining the notion of a cyclic extension, which axiomatises what it means for a notion of cyclic descent to extend the notion of descent. That is, given some combinatorial object with an associated notion of descent, the work of Adin, Reiner, and Roichman [loc. cit.] sets out the properties that should be satisfied when extending this to a notion of cyclic descent. The combinatorial object the paper is concerned with is that of Motzkin paths, which are paths in the plane from \((0, 0)\) to \((n, 0)\) consisting of up steps \((1,1)\), down steps \((1,-1)\), and horizontal steps \((1,0)\), and which never pass below the \(x\)-axis. They thus generalise the more familiar Dyck paths by allowing horizontal steps. There is a notion of descent for Motzkin paths. The main result of the paper is to define a notion of cyclic descent for Motzkin paths and to show that it is indeed a cyclic extension in the sense of Adin et al. [loc. cit.]. Following this, the author notes that different notions of descent for Motzkin paths can be obtained from different rankings between the three different types of steps. It is then shown that these different notions of descent also have cyclic extensions. There is also a notion of descent for standard Young tableaux where the descent set is given by those entries \(i \in [n - 1]\) where \(i + 1\) is in a lower row. In the final section, the author shows that Motzkin paths are in bijection with standard Young tableaux of a certain skew shape. It is then shown that this bijection preserves descents, which allows one to construct a cyclic extension for the Young tableaux of the particular skew shape.