English

Distinct permutation dot products

Combinatorics 2026-01-21 v1

Abstract

We show that for any two sets of reals numbers A={a1,,an}A=\{a_1,\dots,a_n\} and B={b1,,bn}B=\{b_1,\dots,b_n\}, the sums of the form i=1naibπ(i)\sum_{i=1}^n a_i\,b_{\pi(i)} always take on Ω(n3)\Omega(n^{3}) distinct values, as we range over all permutations πSn\pi \in S_n. An important ingredient is a ``supportive'' version of Hal\'asz's anticoncentration theorem from Littlewood-Offord theory, which may be of independent interest.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.12445,
  title  = {Distinct permutation dot products},
  author = {Cosmin Pohoata},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.12445},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

13 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:09:34.148Z