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Abstract We solve two open problems in Coxeter–Catalan combinatorics. First, we introduce a family of rational noncrossing objects for any finite Coxeter group, using the combinatorics of distinguished subwords. Second, we give a type‐uniform proof that these noncrossing Catalan objects are counted by the rational Coxeter–Catalan number, using the character theory of the associated Hecke algebra and the properties of Lusztig's exotic Fourier transform. We solve the same problems for rational noncrossing parking objects. 

Abstract We study totally nonnegative parts of critical varieties in the Grassmannian. We show that each totally nonnegative critical variety $$\operatorname{Crit}^{\geqslant 0}_f$$ is the image of an affine poset cyclohedron under a continuous map and use this map to define a boundary stratification of $$\operatorname{Crit}^{\geqslant 0}_f$$. For the case of the top-dimensional positroid cell, we show that the totally nonnegative critical variety $$\operatorname{Crit}^{\geqslant 0}_{k,n}$$ is homeomorphic to the second hypersimplex $$\Delta _{2,n}$$. 

We determine which bipartite graphs embedded in a torus are move-reduced. In addition, we classify equivalence classes of such move-reduced graphs under square/spider moves. This extends the class of minimal graphs on a torus studied by Goncharov–Kenyon, and gives a toric analog of Postnikov’s and Thurston’s results on a disk. 

Given a (bounded affine) permutation $f$, we study thepositroid Catalan number $C_f$defined to be the torus-equivariant Euler characteristic of the associated open positroid variety. We introduce a class ofrepetition-free permutationsand show that the corresponding positroid Catalan numbers count Dyck paths avoiding a convex subset of the rectangle. We show that any convex subset appears in this way. Conjecturally, the associated $q,t$-polynomials coincide with thegeneralized $q,t$-Catalan numbersthat recently appeared in relation to the shuffle conjecture, flag Hilbert schemes, and Khovanov–Rozansky homology of Coxeter links. 

Leclerc and Zelevinsky, motivated by the study of quasi-commuting quantum flag minors, introduced the notions of strongly separated and weakly separated collections. These notions are closely related to the theory of cluster algebras, to the combinatorics of the double Bruhat cells, and to the totally positive Grassmannian. A key feature, called the purity phenomenon, is that every maximal by inclusion strongly (resp., weakly) separated collection of subsets in $[n]$ has the same cardinality. In this paper, we extend these notions and define $$\mathcal{M}$$-separated collections for any oriented matroid $$\mathcal{M}$$. We show that maximal by size $$\mathcal{M}$$-separated collections are in bijection with fine zonotopal tilings (if $$\mathcal{M}$$ is a realizable oriented matroid), or with one-element liftings of $$\mathcal{M}$$ in general position (for an arbitrary oriented matroid). We introduce the class of pure oriented matroids for which the purity phenomenon holds: an oriented matroid $$\mathcal{M}$$ is pure if $$\mathcal{M}$$-separated collections form a pure simplicial complex, i.e., any maximal by inclusion $$\mathcal{M}$$-separated collection is also maximal by size. We pay closer attention to several special classes of oriented matroids: oriented matroids of rank $$3$$, graphical oriented matroids, and uniform oriented matroids. We classify pure oriented matroids in these cases. An oriented matroid of rank $$3$$ is pure if and only if it is a positroid (up to reorienting and relabeling its ground set). A graphical oriented matroid is pure if and only if its underlying graph is an outerplanar graph, that is, a subgraph of a triangulation of an $$n$$-gon. We give a simple conjectural characterization of pure oriented matroids by forbidden minors and prove it for the above classes of matroids (rank $$3$$, graphical, uniform).