Extending the parking space

Abstract

The action of the symmetric group $S_n$ on the set $Par{k}_n$ of parking functions of size $n$ has received a great deal of attention in algebraic combinatorics. We prove that the action of $S_n$ on $Par{k}_n$ extends to an action of $S_{n+1}$. More precisely, we construct a graded $S_{n+1}$-module $V_n$ such that the restriction of $V_n$ to $S_n$ is isomorphic to $Par{k}_n$. We describe the $S_n$-Frobenius characters of the module $V_n$ in all degrees and describe the $S_{n+1}$-Frobenius characters of $V_n$ in extreme degrees. We give a bivariate generalization $V_n^{(\ell ,m)}$ of our module $V_n$ whose representation theory is governed by a bivariate generalization of Dyck paths. A Fuss generalization of our results is a special case of this bivariate generalization.

19 pages, 6 figures. This version has an ancillary errata file which corrects the proofs of Theorems 2 and 7