Charles Burnette - Involution factorizations of Ewens random permutations

dmtcs:11602 - Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science, August 22, 2025, vol. 27:2 - https://doi.org/10.46298/dmtcs.11602
Involution factorizations of Ewens random permutationsArticle

Authors: Charles Burnette

An involution is a bijection that is its own inverse. Given a permutation $σ$ of $[n],$ let $\mathsf{invol}(σ)$ denote the number of ways $σ$ can be expressed as a composition of two involutions of $[n].$ We prove that the statistic $\mathsf{invol}$ is asymptotically lognormal when the symmetric groups $\mathfrak{S}_n$ are each equipped with Ewens Sampling Formula probability measures of some fixed positive parameter $θ.$ This paper strengthens and generalizes previously determined results about the limiting distribution of $\log(\mathsf{invol})$ for uniform random permutations, i.e. the specific case of $θ= 1$. We also investigate the first two moments of $\mathsf{invol}$ itself, detailing the phase transition in asymptotic behavior at $θ= 1,$ and provide a functional refinement and a convergence rate for the Gaussian limit law which is demonstrably optimal when $θ= 1.$

26 pages


Volume: vol. 27:2
Section: Combinatorics
Published on: August 22, 2025
Accepted on: March 28, 2025
Submitted on: July 19, 2023
Keywords: Combinatorics, Probability, 05A05, 05A16, 60C05

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