On the joint distribution of descents and signs of permutations (Q2049610)

In this article, the authors consider the joint distribution of two statistics on permutations: number of descents and sign. They first give two proofs of a generating function identity for certain refined Eulerian numbers. They then prove a central limit theorem for the coefficients of these refined Eulerian polynomials in three different ways. They also conjecture that these polynomials have only real roots. They apply these results to analyse properties of the sign of a permutation under riffle shuffling and shelf-shuffling. The authors then generalise these results to signed permutations, i.e. the elements of the hyperoctahedral group.