Enumeration of sand piles (Q1849975)

A sand pile of \(n\) grains is a partition \(\lambda= (\lambda_1,\dots, \lambda_\ell)\) of the integer \(n\), i.e. a way of writing it as the sum \(n= \lambda_1+\cdots+ \lambda_\ell\), \(\lambda_1\geq \lambda_2\geq\cdots\geq \lambda_\ell\). The Ferrers diagram of the partition \(\lambda\) is here left-justified; its rows are labelled from bottom to top and its columns from left to right. The authors consider sand piles as dynamical systems, where grains can move from one column of the Ferrers diagram to another one following two rules: horizontal and vertical. They assume that the initial configuration is a column made of \(n\) grains. Successive applications of these rules regarding certain natural restrictions define the so-called ice pile and \(L(\theta)\) models that are studied in the paper. The authors obtain explicit expressions for width and height generating functions of the corresponding Ferrers diagrams. Asymptotic bounds are also computed. The results are derived using bijections and \(q\)-equations. The authors notice that sand pile dynamical systems come from physics and cellular automata theory problems. The references of the paper contain several links in this direction.