The slice decomposition of planar hypermaps

Abstract: The slice decomposition is a bijective method for enumerating planar maps (graphs embedded in the sphere) with control over face degrees. In this paper, we extend the slice decomposition to the richer setting of hypermaps, naturally interpreted as properly face-bicolored maps, where the degrees of faces of each color can be controlled separately. This setting is closely related with the two-matrix model and the Ising model on random maps, which have been intensively studied in theoretical physics, leading to several enumerative formulas for hypermaps that were still awaiting bijective proofs. Generally speaking, the slice decomposition consists in cutting along geodesics. A key feature of hypermaps is that the geodesics along which we cut are directed, following the canonical orientation of edges imposed by the coloring. This orientation requires us to introduce an adapted notion of slices, which admit a recursive decomposition that we describe. Using these slices as fundamental building blocks, we obtain new bijective decompositions of several families of hypermaps: disks (pointed or not) with a monochromatic boundary, cylinders with monochromatic boundaries (starting with trumpets or cornets having one geodesic boundary), and disks with a "Dobrushin" boundary condition. In each case, the decomposition ultimately expresses these objects as sequences of slices whose increments correspond to downward-skip free (Lukasiewicz-type) walks subject to natural constraints. Our approach yields bijective proofs of several explicit expressions for hypermap generating functions. In particular, we provide a combinatorial explanation of the algebraicity and of the existence of rational parametrizations for these generating functions when face degrees are bounded.