  Polar codes form a very powerful family of codes with a low complexity
decoding algorithm that attain many information theoretic limits in error
correction and source coding. These codes are closely related to Reed-Muller
codes because both can be described with the same algebraic formalism, namely
they are generated by evaluations of monomials. However, finding the right set
of generating monomials for a polar code which optimises the decoding
performances is a hard task and channel dependent. The purpose of this paper is
to reveal some universal properties of these monomials. We will namely prove
that there is a way to define a nontrivial (partial) order on monomials so that
the monomials generating a polar code devised fo a binary-input symmetric
channel always form a decreasing set.
  This property turns out to have rather deep consequences on the structure of
the polar code. Indeed, the permutation group of a decreasing monomial code
contains a large group called lower triangular affine group. Furthermore, the
codewords of minimum weight correspond exactly to the orbits of the minimum
weight codewords that are obtained from (evaluations) of monomials of the
generating set. In particular, it gives an efficient way of counting the number
of minimum weight codewords of a decreasing monomial code and henceforth of a
polar code.
