Related papers: An asymptotically tight lower bound for superpatte…

I prove that the average number of comparisons for median-of-$k$ Quicksort (with fat-pivot a.k.a. three-way partitioning) is asymptotically only a constant $\alpha_k$ times worse than the lower bound for sorting random multisets with…

We introduce a permutation analogue of the celebrated Szemeredi Regularity Lemma, and derive a number of consequences. This tool allows us to provide a structural description of permutations which avoid a specified pattern, a result that…

Let $S_n$ be the symmetric group on the set $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$. Given a permutation $\sigma=\sigma_1\sigma_2 \cdots \sigma_n \in S_n$, we say it has a peak at index $i$ if $\sigma_{i-1}<\sigma_i>\sigma_{i+1}$. Let $\text{Peak}(\sigma)$ be…

This paper is part of the ongoing effort to study high-dimensional permutations. We prove the analogue to the Erd\H{o}s-Szekeres theorem: For every $k\ge1$, every order-$n$ $k$-dimensional permutation contains a monotone subsequence of…

Define $S_n(R;T)$ to be the number of permutations on $n$ letters which avoid all patterns in the set $R$ and contain each pattern in the multiset $T$ exactly once. In this paper we enumerate $S_n(\{\alpha\};\{\beta\})$ and…

A large family of words must contain two words that are similar. We investigate several problems where the measure of similarity is the length of a common subsequence. We construct a family of n^{1/3} permutations on n letters, such that…

Given two strings $S$ and $P$, the Episode Matching problem is to find the shortest substring of $S$ that contains $P$ as a subsequence. The best known upper bound for this problem is $\tilde O(nm)$ by Das et al. (1997) , where $n,m$ are…

For $\eta\in S_3$, let $S_n^{\text{av}(\eta)}$ denote the set of permutations in $S_n$ that avoid the pattern $\eta$, and let $E_n^{\text{av}(\eta)}$ denote the expectation with respect to the uniform probability measure on…

Every finite group $G$ has a normal series each of whose factors is either a solvable group or a direct product of non-abelian simple groups. The minimum number of nonsolvable factors, attained on all possible such series in $G$, is called…

In parametric sequence alignment, optimal alignments of two sequences are computed as a function of the penalties for mismatches and spaces, producing many different optimal alignments. Here we give a 3/(2^{7/3}\pi^{2/3})n^{2/3} +O(n^{1/3}…

In this paper we show that the following problem is NP-complete: Given an alphabet $\Sigma$ and two strings over $\Sigma$, the question is whether there exists a permutation of $\Sigma$ which is a subsequence of both of the given strings.

Finite automata on infinite words ($\omega$-automata) proved to be a powerful weapon for modeling and reasoning infinite behaviors of reactive systems. Complementation of $\omega$-automata is crucial in many of these applications. But the…

We introduce and study a new random permutation model that generalizes the $k$-card minimum model defined by Travers and the Mallows model. We calculate the permuton limit of such a sequence of random permutations. As a corollary, we deduce…

In the Shortest Superstring problem we are given a set of strings $S=\{s_1, \ldots, s_n\}$ and integer $\ell$ and the question is to decide whether there is a superstring $s$ of length at most $\ell$ containing all strings of $S$ as…

We provide upper and lower bounds for the expected length $\mathbb E(L_{n,m})$ of the longest common pattern contained in $m$ random permutations of length $n$. We also address the tightness of the concentration of $L_{n,m}$ around $\mathbb…

An $S_k$-set in a group $\Gamma$ is a set $A\subseteq\Gamma$ such that $\alpha_1\cdots\alpha_k=\beta_1\cdots\beta_k$ with $\alpha_i,\beta_i\in A$ implies $(\alpha_1,\ldots,\alpha_k)=(\beta_1,\ldots,\beta_k)$. An $S_k'$-set is a set such…

Drawing on a problem posed by Hertzsprung in 1887, we say that a given permutation $\pi\in\mathcal{S}_n$ contains the Hertzsprung pattern $\sigma\in\mathcal{S}_k$ if there is factor $\pi(d+1)\pi(d+2)\cdots\pi(d+k)$ of $\pi$ such that…

A \emph{covering array} is an $N \times k$ array of elements from a $v$-ary alphabet such that every $N \times t$ subarray contains all $v^t$ tuples from the alphabet of size $t$ at least $\lambda$ times; this is denoted as $\CA_\lambda(N;…

For fixed integers $b\geq k$, the problem of perfect $(b,k)$-hashing asks for the asymptotic growth of largest subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,b\}^n$ such that for any $k$ distinct elements in the set, there is a coordinate where they all differ.…

Define $S_n^k(T)$ to be the set of permutations of $\{1,2,...,n\}$ with exactly $k$ fixed points which avoid all patterns in $T \subseteq S_m$. We enumerate $S_n^k(T)$, $T \subseteq S_3$, for all $|T| \geq 2$ and $0 \leq k \leq n$.