Permutation statistics of indexed permutations (Q1317498)

The definitions of descent, exceedance, major index, inversion index and Denert's statistic for the elements of the symmetric group \({\mathcal S}_ d\) are generalized to indexed permutations, i.e. the elements of the group \(S^ n_ d:=\mathbb{Z}_ n\wr{\mathcal S}_ d\), where \(\wr\) is the wreath product with respect to usual action of \({\mathcal S}_ d\) by permutations of \(\{1,2,\dots,d\}\). It is shown, bijectively, that exceedances and descents are equidistributed, and the corresponding descent polynomial, analogous to the Eulerian polynomials, is computed as the \(f\)-Eulerian polynomial of a simple polynomial. The descent polynomial is shown to equal the \(h\)- polynomial (essentially the \(h\)-vector) of a certain triangulation of the unit \(d\)-cube. This is proved by a bijection which exploits the fact that the \(h\)-vector of the simplicial complex arising from the triangulation can be computed via a shelling of the complex. The famous formula \(\sum_{d\geq 0}E_ d{x^ d\over d!}=\sec x+\tan x\), where \(E_ d\) is the number of alternating permutations in \({\mathcal S}_ d\), is generalized in two different ways, one relating to recent work of V. I. Arnold on Morse theory. The major index and inversion index are shown to be equidistributed over \(S^ n_ d\). Likewise, the pair of statistics \((d\), maj) is shown to be equidistributed with the pair \((\varepsilon\), den), where den is Denert's statistic and \(\varepsilon\) is an alternative definition of exceedance. A result of Stanley, relating the number of permutations with \(k\) descents to the volume of a certain ``slice'' of the unit \(d\)-cube, is also generalized.