Wieland drift for triangular fully packed loop configurations (Q2256123)

Summary: Triangular fully packed loop configurations (TFPLs) emerged as auxiliary objects in the study of fully packed loop configurations on a square (FPLs) corresponding to link patterns with a large number of nested arches. Wieland gyration, on the other hand, was invented to show the rotational invariance of the numbers \(A_\pi\) of FPLs corresponding to a given link pattern \(\pi\). The focus of this article is the definition and study of~Wieland drift on TFPLs.~We show that the repeated application of this operation eventually leads to a configuration that is left invariant. We also provide a characterization of such stable configurations. Finally we apply Wieland drift to the study of TFPL configurations, in particular giving new and simple proofs of several results.