English

The number of cycles of specified normalized length in permutations

Combinatorics 2009-09-17 v1 Probability

Abstract

We compute the limiting distribution, as n approaches infinity, of the number of cycles of length between gamma n and delta n in a permutation of [n] chosen uniformly at random, for constants gamma, delta such that 1/(k+1) <= gamma < delta <= 1/k for some integer k. This distribution is supported on {0, 1, ... k} and has 0th, 1st, ..., kth moments equal to those of a Poisson distribution with parameter log (delta/gamma). For more general choices of gamma, delta we show that such a limiting distribution exists, which can be given explicitly in terms of certain integrals over intersections of hypercubes with half-spaces; these integrals are analytically intractable but a recurrence specifying them can be given. The results herein provide a basis of comparison for similar statistics on restricted classes of permutations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0909.2909,
  title  = {The number of cycles of specified normalized length in permutations},
  author = {Michael Lugo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.2909},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

15 pages, 2 figures