Proof of Dilks' bijectivity conjecture on Baxter permutations (Q6133639)

This paper establishes a bijection, conjectured by \textit{K. Dilks} [Involutions on Baxter objects, and \(q\)-Gamma nonnegativity. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota (PhD Thesis) (2015)], between Baxter permutations and non-intersection triples of lattice paths in terms of inverse descent bottoms, descent positions, and inverse descent tops. This is achieved by examining the connection of Dilks' conjecture with the Françon-Viennot bijection. As an outcome of their investigation, the authors derive a permutation interpretation for the \((t,q)\)-analog of the Baxter numbers given by \[ \frac{1}{\begin{bmatrix} n+1\\ 1\end{bmatrix}_q\begin{bmatrix} n+1\\ 2\end{bmatrix}_q}\sum\limits_{k=0}^{n-1}q^{3{\binom{k+1}{2}}}\begin{bmatrix}{n+1}\\ k\end{bmatrix}_q\begin{bmatrix}n+1\\ k+1\end{bmatrix}_q\begin{bmatrix}n+1\\ k+2\end{bmatrix}_qt^k, \] where \(\begin{bmatrix}n\\ k\end{bmatrix}_q\) are the \(q\)-binomial coefficients.