Related papers: How Balanced Can Permutations Be?

We prove that for any integers $p\geq k\geq 3$ and any $k$-tuple of positive integers $(n_1,\ldots ,n_k)$ such that $p=\sum _{i=1}^k{n_i}$ and $n_1\geq n_2\geq \ldots \geq n_k$, the condition $n_1\leq {p\over 2}$ is necessary and sufficient…

A permutation is said to be a square if it can be obtained by shuffling two order-isomorphic patterns. The definition is intended to be the natural counterpart to the ordinary shuffle of words and languages. In this paper, we tackle the…

For a permutation $\pi$, let $S_{n}(\pi)$ be the number of permutations on $n$ letters avoiding $\pi$. Marcus and Tardos proved the celebrated Stanley-Wilf conjecture that $L(\pi)= \lim_{n \to \infty} S_n(\pi)^{1/n}$ exists and is finite.…

Consider a finite sequence of permutations of the elements 1,...,n, with the property that each element changes its position by at most 1 from any permutation to the next. We call such a sequence a tangle, and we define a move of element i…

A $k$-Stirling permutation of order $n$ is said to be "flattened" if the leading terms of its increasing runs are in ascending order. We show that flattened $k$-Stirling permutations of order $n+1$ are in bijection correspondence with a…

We establish that any even permutation from A_n moving at least [3n/4] + o(n) points is the commutator of a generating pair of A_n and a generating pair of S_n. From this we deduce an exponential lower bound on the number of systems of…

Let $\mathbb{S}_n$ denote the symmetric group on $[n]=\{1,\ldots,n\}$ with the uniform probability measure. For a permutation $\pi \in \mathbb{S}_n$ let $X_{\pi}$ denote the simplicial complex on the vertex set $[n]$ whose simplices are all…

An old conjecture of Kahn and Saks says, roughly, that any poset $P$ of large enough width contains elements $x,y$ which are "balanced" in the sense that the probability that $x$ precedes $y$ in a uniformly random linear extension of $P$ is…

A group is R-harmonious if there exists a permutation $g_1,g_2,\ldots, g_{n-1}$ of the non-identity elements of $G$ such that the consecutive products $g_1g_2$, $g_2g_3$, $\ldots, g_{n-1}g_1$ also form a permutation of the non-identity…

Which subgroups of the symmetric group S_n arise as invariance groups of n-variable functions defined on a k-element domain? It appears that the higher the difference n-k, the more difficult it is to answer this question. For k>=n, the…

A permutation $\pi: [n] \rightarrow [n]$ is a Baxter permutation if and only if it does not contain either of the patterns $2-41-3$ and $3-14-2$. Baxter permutations are one of the most widely studied subclasses of general permutation due…

Let $I_k = [(2k-1)^2, (2k+1)^2)$ for $k \geq 1$. Starting from the odd-composite matrix $(b_{ij})$ with $b_{ij} = (2i-1)(2j-1)$, introduced by the author in [1], we define for each odd integer $n$ the \emph{matrix multiplicity} $r(n)$, the…

A family of permutations A \subset S_n is said to be intersecting if any two permutations in A agree at some point, i.e. for any \sigma, \pi \in A, there is some i such that \sigma(i)=\pi(i). Deza and Frankl showed that for such a family,…

\noindent In our contribution to this volume we deal with \emph{discrete} symmetries: these are symmetries based upon groups with a discrete set of elements (generally a set of elements that can be enumerated by the positive integers). In…

A superpermutation is a sequence that contains every permutation of $n$ distinct symbols as a contiguous substring. For instance, a valid example for three symbols is a sequence that contains all six permutations. This paper introduces a…

In this note we continue the analysis of permutations that avoid substrings j(j+k), 1 <= j <= n-k, k < n, as well as substrings j(j+k) (mod n), 1 <= j <= n. In the first case the number of such permutations can be obtained from recursions…

Following Mansour, let $S_n^{(r)}$ be the set of all coloured permutations on the symbols $1,2,...,n$ with colours $1,2,...,r$, which is the analogous of the symmetric group when r=1, and the hyperoctahedral group when r=2. Let…

The (n,k)-arrangement graph A(n,k) is a graph with all the k-permutations of an n-element set as vertices where two k-permutations are adjacent if they agree in exactly k-1 positions. We introduce a cyclic decomposition for k-permutations…

Let I_n(\pi) denote the number of involutions in the symmetric group S_n which avoid the permutation \pi. We say that two permutations \alpha,\beta\in\S{j} may be exchanged if for every n, k, and ordering \tau of j+1,...,k, we have…

We introduce k-crossings and k-nestings of permutations. We show that the crossing number and the nesting number of permutations have a symmetric joint distribution. As a corollary, the number of k-noncrossing permutations is equal to the…