Bijections between noncrossing and nonnesting partitions for classical reflection groups

Abstract

We present $\textit{type preserving}$ bijections between noncrossing and nonnesting partitions for all classical reflection groups, answering a question of Athanasiadis and Reiner. The bijections for the abstract Coxeter types $B$, $C$ and $D$ are new in the literature. To find them we define, for every type, sets of statistics that are in bijection with noncrossing and nonnesting partitions, and this correspondence is established by means of elementary methods in all cases. The statistics can be then seen to be counted by the generalized Catalan numbers Cat$(W)$ when $W$ is a classical reflection group. In particular, the statistics of type $A$ appear as a new explicit example of objects that are counted by the classical Catalan numbers.