Matchings avoiding partial patterns

Abstract

We show that matchings avoiding a certain partial pattern are counted by the 3-Catalan numbers. We give a characterization of 12312-avoiding matchings in terms of restrictions on the corresponding oscillating tableaux. We also find a bijection between matchings avoiding both patterns 12312 and 121323 and Schröder paths without peaks at level one, which are counted by the super-Catalan numbers or the little Schröder numbers. A refinement of the super-Catalan numbers is derived by fixing the number of crossings in the matchings. In the sense of Wilf-equivalence, we use the method of generating trees to show that the patterns 12132, 12123, 12321, 12231, 12213 are all equivalent to the pattern 12312.