A Context-free Grammar for the $e$-Positivity of the Trivariate Second-order Eulerian Polynomials

Ma-Ma-Yeh made a beautiful observation that a change of the grammar of Dumont instantly leads to the $gamma$-positivity of the Eulearian polynomials. We notice that the transformed grammar bears a striking resemblance to the grammar for 0-1-2 increasing trees also due to Dumont. The appearance of the factor of two fits perfectly in a grammatical labeling of 0-1-2 increasing plane trees. Furthermore, the grammatical calculus is instrumental to the computation of the generating functions. This approach can be adapted to study the $e$-positivity of the trivariate second-order Eulerian polynomials introduced by Janson, in connection with the joint distribution of the numbers of ascents, descents and plateaux over Stirling permutations.