Related papers: Commutators of n-cycles in the symmetric group

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…

A family of permutations $\mathcal{F} \subseteq S_n$ is even-cycle-intersecting if $\sigma \pi^{-1}$ has an even cycle for all $\sigma,\pi \in \mathcal{F}$. We show that if $\mathcal{F} \subseteq S_n$ is an even-cycle-intersecting family of…

We describe an efficient algorithm to write any element of the alternating group A_n as a product of two n-cycles (in particular, we show that any element of A_n can be so written -- a result of E. A. Bertram). An easy corollary is that…

We show that any smooth permutation $\sigma\in S_n$ is characterized by the set ${\mathbf{C}}(\sigma)$ of transpositions and $3$-cycles in the Bruhat interval $(S_n)_{\leq\sigma}$, and that $\sigma$ is the product (in a certain order) of…

We prove that in a regular category all reflexive and transitive relations are symmetric if and only if every internal category is an internal groupoid. In particular, these conditions hold when the category is n-permutable for some n.

Let $\alpha(n)$ denote the number of perfect square permutations in the symmetric group $S_n$. The conjecture $\alpha(2n+1) = (2n+1) \alpha(2n)$, provided by Stanley[4], was proved by Blum[1] using a generating function. This paper presents…

Although the conjugacy classes of the general linear group are known, it is not obvious (from the canonic form of matrices) that two permutation matrices are similar if and only if they are conjugate as permutations in the symmetric group,…

Let B(n) be the set of pairs of permutations from the symmetric group of degree n with a 3-cycle commutator, and let A(n) be the set of those pairs which generate the symmetric or the alternating group of degree n. We find effective…

We extend to alternating groups $A_n$ several results about symmetric groups asserting that under various conditions on a conjugacy class, or more generally, a normal subset, $C$ of $S_n$, we have $C^2 \supseteq A_n\setminus\{1\}$

In this paper we give an affirmative answer to a conjecture proposed by Danny Neftin, that is, if the commutator of two permutations has at least n-4 fixed points where two permutations are in degree n symmetric group, then there exists a…

It is known that the number of permutations in the symmetric group $S_{2n}$ with cycles of odd lengths only is equal to the number of permutations with cycles of even lengths only. We prove a refinement of this equality, involving descent…

Let $X$ be a character table of the symmetric group $S_n$. It is shown that unless $n = 4$ or $n=6$, there is a unique way to assign partitions of $n$ to the rows and columns of $X$ so that for all $\lambda$ and $\nu$, $X_{\lambda\nu}$ is…

We determine the commutative Schur rings over $S_6$ that contain the sum of all the transpositions in $S_6$. There are eight such types (up to conjugacy), of which four have the set of all the transpositions as a principal set of the Schur…

Let $H$ be a permutation group on a set $\Lambda$, which is permutationally isomorphic to a finite alternating or symmetric group $A_n$ or $S_n$ acting on the $k$-element subsets of points from $\{1,\ldots,n\}$, for some arbitrary but fixed…

Let $A$ and $B$ be subsets of a finite group $G$ and $r$ a positive integer. If for every $g\in G$, there are precisely $r$ pairs $(a,b)\in A\times B$ such that $g=ab$, then $B$ is called a code in $G$ with respect to $A$ and we write $r…

Using a result of Gessel and Reutenauer, we find a simple formula for the number of cyclic permutations with a given descent set, by expressing it in terms of ordinary descent numbers (i.e., those counting all permutations with a given…

In this paper we study combinatorial aspects of permutations of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ and related topics. In particular, we prove that there is a unique permutation $\pi$ of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ such that all the numbers $k+\pi(k)$ ($k=1,\ldots,n$)…

Denote the alternating and symmetric groups of degree $n$ by $A_n$ and $S_n$ respectively. Consider a permutation $\sigma\in S_n$ all of whose nontrivial cycles are of the same length. We find the minimal polynomials of $\sigma$ in the…

E. Artin described all irreducible representations of the braid group B_k to the symmetric group S(k). We strengthen some of his results and, moreover, exhibit a complete picture of homomorphisms of B_k to S(n) for n<2k+1. We show that the…

An alternating sign matrix is a square matrix satisfying (i) all entries are equal to 1, -1 or 0; (ii) every row and column has sum 1; (iii) in every row and column the non-zero entries alternate in sign. The 8-element group of symmetries…