English

A complete classification of shuffle groups

Group Theory 2024-12-11 v4 Combinatorics

Abstract

For positive integers kk and nn, the shuffle group Gk,knG_{k,kn} is generated by the k!k! permutations of a deck of knkn cards performed by cutting the deck into kk piles with nn cards in each pile, and then perfectly interleaving these cards following a certain permutation of the kk piles. For k=2k=2, the shuffle group G2,2nG_{2,2n} was determined by Diaconis, Graham and Kantor in 1983. The Shuffle Group Conjecture states that, for general kk, the shuffle group Gk,knG_{k,kn} contains Akn\mathrm{A}_{kn} whenever k{2,4}k\notin\{2,4\} and nn is not a power of kk. In particular, the conjecture in the case k=3k=3 was posed by Medvedoff and Morrison in 1987. The only values of kk for which the Shuffle Group Conjecture has been confirmed so far are powers of 22, due to recent work of Amarra, Morgan and Praeger based on Classification of Finite Simple Groups. In this paper, we confirm the Shuffle Group Conjecture for all cases using results on 22-transitive groups and elements of large fixed point ratio in primitive groups.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2304.01037,
  title  = {A complete classification of shuffle groups},
  author = {Binzhou Xia and Junyang Zhang and Zhishuo Zhang and Wenying Zhu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.01037},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T09:46:49.191Z