Related papers: Groups of permutations that are even on maximal pr…

The distinguishing number of a permutation group $G\leqslant\Sym(\Omega)$ is the minimum number of colours needed to colour $\Omega$ in such a way that the only colour preserving element of $G$ is the identity. The distinguishing number of…

In this paper, we determine minimal generating sets for several well-known monoids of matrices over semirings. In particular, we find minimal generating sets for the monoids consisting of: all $n\times n$ boolean matrices when $n\leq 8$;…

An algorithmic upper bound on the domination number $\gamma$ of graphs in terms of the order $n$ and the minimum degree $\delta$ is proved. It is demonstrated that the bound improves best previous bounds for any $5\le \delta \le 50$. In…

A transformation monoid on a set Omega is called synchronizing if it contains an element of rank 1 (that is, mapping the whole of Omega to a single point). In this paper, I tackle the question: given n and k, what is the probability that…

Let $X_n = \{1,2,\dots,n\}$ be a finite set $(n\geq 2)$ and $T_n$ the full transformation semigroup on $X_n$. For a positive integer $l\leq n-1$, we define $$T_n(l) = \{\alpha\in T_n \colon \forall x,y\in X_n,\, |x-y| = l \;\Rightarrow\;…

Let $G$ be a finite almost simple group. It is well known that $G$ can be generated by 3 elements, and in previous work we showed that 6 generators suffice for all maximal subgroups of $G$. In this paper we consider subgroups at the next…

We extend the reciprocity method of Jones and Remmel to study generating functions of the form $$\sum_{n \geq 0} \frac{t^n}{n!} \sum_{\sigma \in \mathcal{NM}_n(\Gamma)}x^{\mathrm{LRmin}(\sigma)}y^{1+\mathrm{des}(\sigma)}$$ where $\Gamma$ is…

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…

The permutation language $P_n$ consists of all words that are permutations of a fixed alphabet of size $n$. Using divide-and-conquer, we construct a regular expression $R_n$ that specifies $P_n$. We then give explicit bounds for the length…

Any permutation in the finite symmetric group can be written as a product of simple transpositions $s_i = (i~i+1)$. For a fixed permutation $\sigma \in \mathfrak{S}_n$ the products of minimal length are called reduced decompositions or…

For a finite non cyclic group $G$, let $\gamma(G)$ be the smallest integer $k$ such that $G$ contains $k$ proper subgroups $H_1,\dots,H_k$ with the property that every element of $G$ is contained in $H_i^g$ for some $i \in \{1,\dots,k\}$…

Let $C(n)$ denote the number of permutations $\sigma$ of $[n]=\{1,2,\dots,n\}$ such that $\gcd(j,\sigma(j))=1$ for each $j\in[n]$. We prove that for $n$ sufficiently large, $n!/3.73^n < C(n) < n!/2.5^n$.

The normal covering number $\gamma(G)$ of a finite, non-cyclic group $G$ is the least number of proper subgroups such that each element of $G$ lies in some conjugate of one of these subgroups. We prove that there is a positive constant $c$…

A random $n$-permutation may be generated by sequentially removing random cards $C_1,...,C_n$ from an $n$-card deck $D = \{1,...,n\}$. The permutation $\sigma$ is simply the sequence of cards in the order they are removed. This permutation…

If every element of a matrix group is similar to a permutation matrix, then it is called a permutation-like matrix group. References [4], [5] and [6] showed that, if a permutation-like matrix group contains a maximal cycle such that the…

Let $G \leqslant {\rm Sym}(\Omega)$ be a finite transitive permutation group and recall that an element in $G$ is a derangement if it has no fixed points on $\Omega$. Let $\Delta(G)$ be the set of derangements in $G$ and define $\delta(G) =…

A set of proper subgroups is a covering for a group if its union is the whole group. The minimal number of subgroups needed to cover $G$ is called the covering number of $G$, denoted by $\sigma(G)$. Determining $\sigma(G)$ is an open…

We give sharp bounds in Breuillard, Green and Tao's finitary version of Gromov's theorem on groups with polynomial growth. Precisely, we show that for every non-negative integer d there exists $c=c(d)>0$ such that if $G$ is a group with…

The computation of the normaliser of a permutation group in the full symmetric group is an important and hard problem in computational group theory. This article reports on an algorithm that builds a descending chain of overgroups to…

We study aspects of the enumeration of permutation classes, sets of permutations closed downwards under the subpermutation order. First, we consider monotone grid classes of permutations. We present procedures for calculating the generating…