Permutation graphs and the abelian sandpile model, tiered trees and non-ambiguous binary trees (Q2318776)

Summary: A permutation graph is a graph whose edges are given by inversions of a permutation. We study the Abelian sandpile model (ASM) on such graphs. We exhibit a bijection between recurrent configurations of the ASM on permutation graphs and the tiered trees introduced by \textit{W. Dugan} et al. [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 164, 24--49 (2019; Zbl 1407.05048)]. This bijection allows certain parameters of the recurrent configurations to be read on the corresponding tree. In particular, we show that the level of a recurrent configuration can be interpreted as the external activity of the corresponding tree, so that the bijection exhibited provides a new proof of a famous result linking the level polynomial of the ASM to the ubiquitous Tutte polynomial. We show that the set of minimal recurrent configurations is in bijection with the set of complete non-ambiguous binary trees introduced by \textit{J.-C. Aval} et al. [Adv. Appl. Math. 56, 78--108 (2014; Zbl 1300.05127)], and introduce a multi-rooted generalization of these that we show to correspond to all recurrent configurations. In the case of permutations with a single descent, we recover some results from the case of Ferrers graphs presented in [\textit{M. Dukes} et al., Eur. J. Comb. 81, 221--241 (2019; Zbl 1419.05008)], while we also recover results of \textit{D. Perkinson} et al. [Combinatorica 37, No. 2, 269--282 (2017; Zbl 1399.05006)] in the case of threshold graphs.