Applications of Symmetric Functions to Cycle and Subsequence Structure after Shuffles

Using symmetric function theory, we study the cycle structure and increasing subsequence structure of permutations after various shuffling methods, emphasizing the role of Cauchy type identities and the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence. One consequence is a cycle index for riffle shuffles when one deals from the bottom of the deck; conclusions are drawn concerning the distribution of fixed points and the asymptotic distribution of cycle structure. In studying cycle structure of unimodal permutations and their generalizations we are led to an interesting variation of the RSK correspondence. This yields a probabilistic interpretation of a Schur-type function.