A combinatorial model for exceptional sequences in type A

Abstract

Exceptional sequences are certain ordered sequences of quiver representations. We use noncrossing edge-labeled trees in a disk with boundary vertices (expanding on T. Araya’s work) to classify exceptional sequences of representations of $Q$, the linearly ordered quiver with $n$ vertices. We also show how to use variations of this model to classify $c$-matrices of $Q$, to interpret exceptional sequences as linear extensions, and to give a simple bijection between exceptional sequences and certain chains in the lattice of noncrossing partitions. In the case of $c$-matrices, we also give an interpretation of $c$-matrix mutation in terms of our noncrossing trees with directed edges.

Keywords

• quiver mutation
• exceptional sequences
• $c$-matrices
• linear extensions
• [info.info-dm] computer science [cs]/discrete mathematics [cs.dm]