Random Permutation Statistics - Number of Permutations That Are Involutions

Number of Permutations That Are Involutions

An involution is a permutation σ so that σ2 = 1 under permutation composition. It follows that σ may only contain cycles of length one or two, i.e. the EGF g(z) of these permutations is

This gives the explicit formula for the total number of involutions among the permutations σ ∈ Sn:

I(n) = n! g(z) = n! \sum_{a+2b=n} \frac{1}{a! \; 2^b \; b!} = n! \sum_{b=0}^{\lfloor n/2 \rfloor} \frac{1}{(n-2b)! \; 2^b \; b!}.

Dividing by n! yields the probability that a random permutation is an involution.

Read more about this topic:  Random Permutation Statistics

Famous quotes containing the words number of, number and/or permutations:

    “I heartily wish you, in the plain home-spun style, a great number of happy new years, well employed in forming both your mind and your manners, to be useful and agreeable to yourself, your country, and your friends.”
    —Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    “My idea is that the world outside—the so-called modern world—can only pervert and degrade the conceptions of the primitive instinct of art and feeling, and that our only chance is to accept the limited number of survivors—the one- in-a-thousand of born artists and poets—and to intensify the energy of feeling within that radiant centre.”
    —Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)

    “The new shopping malls make possible the synthesis of all consumer activities, not least of which are shopping, flirting with objects, idle wandering, and all the permutations of these.”
    —Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)