Cyclic inclusion-exclusion
  Following the lead of Stanley and Gessel, we consider a morphism which associates to an acyclic directed graph (or a poset) a quasi-symmetric function. The latter is naturally defined as multivariate generating series of non-decreasing functions on the graph. We describe the kernel of this morphism, using a simple combinatorial operation that we call cyclic inclusion-exclusion. Our result also holds for the natural noncommutative analog and for the commutative and noncommutative restrictions to bipartite graphs. An application to the theory of Kerov character polynomials is given. 
Valentin F\'eray
math.CO