Enumerative Combinatorics: Volume 1: Second Edition (draft 19 May 2011)

2nd Edition draft, 19 May 2011Main subject category: • Enumerative CombinatoricsContents: • What is Enumerative Combinatorics • Sieve Methods • Partially Ordered Sets • Rational Generating Functions • Appendix Graph Theory Terminology • First Edition Numbering • List of Notation (Partial) • IndexRichard Stanley's two-volume basic introduction to enumerative combinatorics has become the standard guide to the topic for students and experts alike. This thoroughly revised second edition of Volume 1 includes ten new sections and more than 300 new exercises, most with solutions, reflecting numerous new developments since the publication of the first edition in 1986.The material in Volume 1 was chosen to cover those parts of enumerative combinatorics of greatest applicability and with the most important connections with other areas of mathematics. The four chapters are devoted to an introduction to enumeration (suitable for advanced undergraduates), sieve methods, partially ordered sets, and rational generating functions. Much of the material is related to generating functions, a fundamental tool in enumerative combinatorics. In this new edition, the author brings the coverage up to date and includes a wide variety of additional applications and examples, as well as updated and expanded chapter bibliographies. Many of the less difficult new exercises have no solutions so that they can more easily be assigned to students.The material on P-partitions has been rearranged and generalized; the treatment of permutation statistics has been greatly enlarged; and there are also new sections on q-analogues of permutations, hyperplane arrangements, the cd-index, promotion and evacuation, and differential posets. This second volume of a two-volume basic introduction to enumerative combinatorics covers the composition of generating functions, trees, algebraic generating functions, D-finite generating functions, noncommutative generating functions, and symmetric functions. The chapter on symmetric functions provides the only available treatment of this subject suitable for an introductory graduate course on combinatorics, and includes the important Robinson-Schensted-Knuth algorithm. An appendix by Sergey Fomin covers some deeper aspects of symmetric function theory including jeu de taquin and the Littlewood-Richardson rule. There are over 250 exercises, all with solutions or references to solutions, many of which concern previously unpublished results. Graduate students and research mathematicians who wish to apply combinatorics to their work will find this an authoritative reference.

This book is an introduction to enumerative combinatorics for graduate students and researchers. It concentrates on the theory and application of generating functions, a fundamental tool in enumerative combinatorics. The four chapters are devoted to enumeration, sieve methods (including the Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion), partially ordered sets, and rational generating functions. There are a large number of exercises, almost all with solutions, which greatly augment the text and provide entry into many areas not covered directly. The author stresses important connections with other areas of mathematics. This is a reissue of a book first published in 1986. The author has updated the references and included more problems. Graduate students and research mathematicians who wish to apply combinatorics to their work will find this an authoritative reference.

"Richard Stanley's two-volume basic introduction to enumerative combinatorics has become the standard guide to the topic for students and experts alike. This thoroughly revised second edition of Volume 1 includes ten new sections and more than 300 new exercises, most with solutions, reflecting numerous new developments since the publication of the first edition in 1986. The author brings the coverage up to date and includes a wide variety of additional applications and examples, as well as updated and expanded chapter bibliographies. Many of the less difficult new exercises have no solutions so that they can more easily be assigned to students. The material on P-partitions has been rearranged and generalized; the treatment of permutation statistics has been greatly enlarged; and there are also new sections on q-analogues of permutations, hyperplane arrangements, the cd-index, promotion and evacuation and differential posets"-- Provided by publisher Machine generated contents note: 1. What is enumerative combinatorics?; 2. Sieve methods; 3. Partially ordered sets; 4. Rational generating functions.