Wieland Drift for Triangular Fully Packed Loop Configurations

Abstract

Triangular fully packed loop configurations (TFPLs) emerged as auxiliary objects in the study of fully packed loop configurations on a square (FPLs) corresponding to link patterns with a large number of nested arches. Wieland gyration, on the other hand, was invented to show the rotational invariance of the numbers $A_\pi$ of FPLs corresponding to a given link pattern $\pi$. The focus of this article is the definition and study of Wieland drift on TFPLs. We show that the repeated application of this operation eventually leads to a configuration that is left invariant. We also provide a characterization of such stable configurations. Finally we apply Wieland drift to the study of TFPL configurations, in particular giving new and simple proofs of several results.