English

Explicit marginal distributions for permutations with prescribed Robinson-Schensted shape

Combinatorics 2026-05-12 v2

Abstract

Given a permutation σ\sigma, the Robinson-Schensted correspondence determines a certain partition called the shape of σ\sigma. Famously, the shape measures the longest unions of increasing and decreasing subsequences, thus giving global information about σ\sigma. In this paper, by contrast, we ask how prescribing a shape collectively controls local behavior: namely, if σ\sigma is a random permutation of shape λ\lambda, then what is Pijλ:=P^\lambda_{ij} := the probability that σ(i)=j\sigma(i) = j? Using tableau-theoretic methods, we derive explicit formulas for PijλP^\lambda_{ij} when λ\lambda is a hook, two-row, or rectangular shape. We use these formulas to depict and analyze the intricate diffraction-like patterns in the matrices (Pijλ)(P^\lambda_{ij}). As a surprising application, we show that for both hook and two-row shapes, as the largest part of λ\lambda tends to infinity with the remaining parts fixed (summing to mm), the expected proportion of fixed points in σ\sigma approaches the Wallis integral 0π/2sin2m+1xdx=(2m)!!/(2m+1)!!\int_0^{\pi/2} \sin^{2m+1} x \: dx = (2m)!! / (2m+1)!!.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.00378,
  title  = {Explicit marginal distributions for permutations with prescribed Robinson-Schensted shape},
  author = {William Q. Erickson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.00378},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Minor typos corrected from Version 1

R2 v1 2026-07-01T12:44:45.564Z