Promotion of Kreweras words

Abstract: Kreweras words are words consisting of n A's, n B's, and n C's in which every prefix has at least as many A's as B's and at least as many A's as C's. Equivalently, a Kreweras word is a linear extension of the poset ${\sf V}\times [n]$. Kreweras words were introduced in 1965 by Kreweras, who gave a remarkable product formula for their enumeration. Subsequently they became a fundamental example in the theory of lattice walks in the quarter plane. We study Sch\"{u}tzenberger's promotion operator on the set of Kreweras words. In particular, we show that 3n applications of promotion on a Kreweras word merely swaps the B's and C's. Doing so, we provide the first answer to a question of Stanley from 2009, asking for posets with `good' behavior under promotion, other than the four families of shapes classified by Haiman in 1992. We also uncover a strikingly simple description of Kreweras words in terms of Kuperberg's $\mathfrak{sl}_3$-webs, and Postnikov's trip permutation associated with any plabic graph. In this description, Sch\"{u}tzenberger's promotion corresponds to rotation of the web.