Is there a direct bijective mapping between triangulation and parenthesis grouping

catalan-numberscombinatorics

Consider the following two problems.

・ The number of ways to triangulate a $n+2$ sided polygon.

・ The number of ways to put parenthesis around the equation
$a_1+a_2+…+a_n$ that results in a unique order of operation.

I know using the recurrence relationship and find the formula out we can find out both are the $n$th Catalan Number and therefore have to be equal.

However this gives no insight other than "base case are equal and both follow the same induction path", which is far from understanding what really happens.

What I am looking for, is a direct bijection between cases of the two problems, such that we can convert one into another.

For example, the number of permutation of $4$ numbers and the number of symmetry of a cube has a direct bijection where the position of the diagonal of the cube correspond to each of the $4$ numbers, which explains the insight of why their numbers are both $24$.

I am looking for a similar argument for the triangulation problem and parenthesis grouping problem.

Best Answer

There is a nice recursive procedure for constructing the triangulation corresponding to a balanced parenthesis string.

Suppose that $\sigma$ is a balanced string of $n$ pairs of parentheses; it must have the form $(\sigma_0)\sigma_1$, where $\sigma_0$ and $\sigma_1$ are balanced strings, either of which may be empty, and the parentheses are a matched pair. Now start with an $(n+2)$-gon that has not yet been triangulated, and fix a pair of adjacent vertices $x$ and $y$, with $x$ clockwise from $y$. Label the remaining $n$ vertices $v_0$ through $v_{n-1}$ counting clockwise from $x$.

If $\sigma_0$ contains $k$ pairs of parentheses, draw lines from $x$ and $y$ to $v_k$ to create a triangle $xv_ky$. (If $\sigma_0$ is empty, $k=0$, and the line from $x$ to $v_0$ is already present. Similarly, if $\sigma_1$ is empty, then $k=n-1$, and the line from $y$ to $v_{n-1}$ is already present.) If $1\le k\le n-2$, we have partitioned the $(n+2)$-gon into a $(k+2)$-gon with vertices $x,v_0,\ldots,v_k$, the triangle $xv_ky$, and an $(n-k+1)$-gon with vertices $y,v_k,\ldots,v_{n-1}$. (If $k=0$ or $k=n-1$, one of the polygons is empty, and we have only the triangle and one polygon.)

Now repeat the process with the new, smaller polygon(s), taking the edges $xv_k$ and $yv_k$ as the baseline edges analogous to the edge $xy$ of the original polygon and using the parenthesis strings $\sigma_0$ and $\sigma_1$, respectively, to determine the vertex of the triangle erected on each of those baselines.

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