Pattern avoiding permutations and involutions with a unique longest increasing subsequence

Kostka Numbers and Longest Increasing Subsequences

A classical bijection relates certain Kostka numbers, the Catalan numbers, and permutations of length $n$ with longest increasing subsequence (LIS) of length at most $2.$ We generalize this bijection and find Kostka numbers which count the number of permutations of $n$ with LIS length at most $w,$ the number of permutations with $(1, \cdots, w)$ as a LIS, and other similar subsets of permutations.

On the length of the longest subsequence avoiding an arbitrary pattern in a random permutation

We consider the distribution of the length of the longest subsequence avoiding a given pattern in a random permutation of length n. The well-studied case of a longest increasing subsequence corresponds to avoiding the pattern 21. We show that there is some constant c such that the mean value of this length is asymptotic to twice the square root of c times n and that the distribution of the length is tightly concentrated around its mean. We observe some apparent connections between c and the Stanley-Wilf limit of the class of permutations avoiding the given pattern.

Longest common subsequences in sets of words

Given a set of $t$ words of length $n$ over a $k$-letter alphabet, it is proved that there exists a common subsequence among two of them of length at least $\frac{n}{k}+cn^{1-1/(t-k-2)}$, for some $c>0$ depending on $k$ and $t$. This is sharp up to the value of $c$.

Longest increasing subsequences in pattern-restricted permutations

Inspired by the results of Baik, Deift and Johansson on the limiting distribution of the lengths of the longest increasing subsequences in random permutations, we find those limiting distributions for pattern-restricted permutations in which the pattern is any one of the six patterns of length 3. We show that the (132)-avoiding case is identical to the distribution of heights of ordered trees, and that the (321)-avoiding case has interesting connections with a well known theorem of Erd\H os-Szekeres.

Bijective enumeration of permutations starting with a longest increasing subsequence

We prove a formula for the number of permutations in $S_n$ such that their first $n-k$ entries are increasing and their longest increasing subsequence has length $n-k$. This formula first appeared as a consequence of character polynomial calculations in recent work of Adriano Garsia and Alain Goupil. We give two `elementary' bijective proofs of this result and of its $q$-analogue, one proof using the RSK correspondence and one only permutations.

Longest Common Subsequences in Sets of Permutations

The sequence a_1,...,a_m is a common subsequence in the set of permutations S = {p_1,...,p_k} on [n] if it is a subsequence of p_i(1),...,p_i(n) and p_j(1),...,p_j(n) for some distinct p_i, p_j in S. Recently, Beame and Huynh-Ngoc (2008) showed that when k>=3, every set of k permutations on [n] has a common subsequence of length at least n^{1/3}. We show that, surprisingly, this lower bound is asymptotically optimal for all constant values of k. Specifically, we show that for any k>=3 and n>=k^2 there exists a set of k permutations on [n] in which the longest common subsequence has length at m…

Schur positivity and log-concavity related to longest increasing subsequences

Chen proposed a conjecture on the log-concavity of the generating function for the symmetric group with respect to the length of longest increasing subsequences of permutations. Motivated by Chen's log-concavity conjecture, Bóna, Lackner and Sagan further studied similar problems by restricting the whole symmetric group to certain of its subsets. They obtained the log-concavity of the corresponding generating functions for these subsets by using the hook-length formula. In this paper, we generalize and prove their results by establishing the Schur positivity of certain symmetric functions. Thi…

Avoiding approximate repetitions with respect to the longest common subsequence distance

Ochem, Rampersad, and Shallit gave various examples of infinite words avoiding what they called approximate repetitions. An approximate repetition is a factor of the form xx', where x and x' are close to being identical. In their work, they measured the similarity of x and x' using either the Hamming distance or the edit distance. In this paper, we show the existence of words avoiding approximate repetitions, where the measure of similarity between adjacent factors is based on the length of the longest common subsequence. Our principal technique is the so-called "entropy compression" method, w…

Subsequence containment by involutions

Inspired by work of McKay, Morse, and Wilf, we give an exact count of the involutions in S_n which contain a given permutation τin S_k as a subsequence; this number depends on the patterns of the first j values of τfor 1<=j<=k. We then use this to define a partition of S_k, analogous to Wilf-classes in the study of pattern avoidance, and examine properties of this equivalence. In the process, we show that a permutation τ_1...τ_k is layered iff, for 1<=j<=k, the pattern of τ_1...τ_j is an involution. We also obtain a result of Sagan and Stanley counting the standard Young tableaux of size $n$ w…

避免长度为三的模式的随机排列中最长交替子序列和最长递增子序列的大偏差

Large deviations for the longest alternating and the longest increasing subsequence in a random permutation avoiding a pattern of length three

本文计算了避免长度为三的模式的均匀随机排列中，最长交替子序列和最长递增子序列长度的大偏差，发现交替子序列六种情况共享一个速率函数（即对称伯努利随机变量之和的速率函数），递增子序列两种情况的速率函数为其两倍。

关于最长递增子序列分布对数凹性的Chen猜想

On Chen's conjecture for the log-concavity of the longest increasing subsequence distribution

本文证明当$n\ge 10^{10^{65}}$时，关于最长递增子序列分布对数凹性的Chen猜想成立，证明结合了Gessel行列式公式、Tracy-Widom密度估计等方法。

Longest increasing subsequences and log concavity

Let $π$ be a permutation of $[n]=\{1,\dots,n\}$ and denote by $\ell(π)$ the length of a longest increasing subsequence of $π$. Let $\ell_{n,k}$ be the number of permutations $π$ of $[n]$ with $\ell(π)=k$. Chen conjectured that the sequence $\ell_{n,1},\ell_{n,2},\dots,\ell_{n,n}$ is log concave for every fixed positive integer $n$. We conjecture that the same is true if one is restricted to considering involutions and we show that these two conjectures are closely related. We also prove various analogues of these conjectures concerning permutations whose output tableaux under the Robinson-Sche…

通过RSK和evacuation获得受限子序列

Descent-restricted subsequences via RSK and evacuation

本文通过RSK和evacuation方法研究了受限子序列的统计量，揭示了其与排列记录表的关系。

Log-concavity and q-Log-convexity Conjectures on the Longest Increasing Subsequences of Permutations

Let $P_{n,k}$ be the number of permutations $π$ on [n]={1, 2,..., n} such that the length of the longest increasing subsequences of $π$ equals k, and let $M_{2n, k}$ be the number of matchings on [2n] with crossing number k. Define $P_n(x)= \sum_k P_{n,k}x^k$ and $M_{2n}(x)=\sum_{k} M_{2n,k}x^k$. We propose some conjectures on the log-concavity and q-log-convexity of the polynomials $P_n(x)$ and $M_{2n}(x)$. We also introduce the notions of $\infty$-q-log-convexity and $\infty$-q-log-concavity, and the notion of higher order log-concavity with respect to $\infty$-q-log-convex or $\infty$-q-log…

Longest increasing subsequences of random colored permutations

We compute the limit distribution for (centered and scaled) length of the longest increasing subsequence of random colored permutations. The limit distribution function is a power of that for usual random permutations computed recently by Baik, Deift, and Johansson (math.CO/9810105). In two--colored case our method provides a different proof of a similar result by Tracy and Widom about longest increasing subsequences of signed permutations (math.CO/9811154). Our main idea is to reduce the `colored' problem to the case of usual random permutations using certain combinatorial results and element…

Longest common subsequences and the Bernoulli matching model: numerical work and analyses of the r-reach simplification

The expected length of longest common subsequences is a problem that has been in the literature for at least twenty five years. Determining the limiting constants γ_k appears to be quite difficult, and the current best bounds leave much room for improvement. Boutet de Monvel explores an independent version of the problem he calls the Bernoulli Matching model. He explores this problem and its relation to the longest common subsequence problem. This paper continues this pursuit by focusing on a simplification we term r-reach. For the string model, L_r(u,v) is the longest common subsequence of u …

On the longest common subsequence of Thue-Morse words

The length $a(n)$ of the longest common subsequence of the $n$'th Thue-Morse word and its bitwise complement is studied. An open problem suggested by Jean Berstel in 2006 is to find a formula for $a(n)$. In this paper we prove new lower bounds on $a(n)$ by explicitly constructing a common subsequence between the Thue-Morse words and their bitwise complement. We obtain the lower bound $a(n) = 2^{n}(1-o(1))$, saying that when $n$ grows large, the fraction of omitted symbols in the longest common subsequence of the $n$'th Thue-Morse word and its bitwise complement goes to $0$. We further generali…

Expected length of the longest common subsequence for large alphabets

We consider the length L of the longest common subsequence of two randomly uniformly and independently chosen n character words over a k-ary alphabet. Subadditivity arguments yield that the expected value of L, when normalized by n, converges to a constant C_k. We prove a conjecture of Sankoff and Mainville from the early 80's claiming that C_k\sqrt{k} goes to 2 as k goes to infinity.

Longest monotone subsequences and rare regions of pattern-avoiding permutations

We consider the distributions of the lengths of the longest monotone and alternating subsequences in classes of permutations of size $n$ that avoid a specific pattern or set of patterns, with respect to the uniform distribution on each such class. We obtain exact results for any class that avoids two patterns of length 3, as well as results for some classes that avoid one pattern of length 4 or more. In our results, the longest monotone subsequences have expected length proportional to $n$ for pattern-avoiding classes, in contrast with the $\sqrt n$ behaviour that holds for unrestricted permut…

Length of the longest common subsequence between overlapping words

Given two random finite sequences from $[k]^n$ such that a prefix of the first sequence is a suffix of the second, we examine the length of their longest common subsequence. If $\ell$ is the length of the overlap, we prove that the expected length of an LCS is approximately $\max(\ell, \mathbb{E}[L_n])$, where $L_n$ is the length of an LCS between two independent random sequences. We also obtain tail bounds on this quantity.

A mean identity for longest increasing subsequence problems

We show that a wide variety of generalized increasing subsequence problems admit a one parameter family of extensions for which we can exactly compute the mean length of the longest increasing subsequence. By the nature of the extension, this gives upper bounds on the mean in the unextended model, which turn out to be asymptotically tight for all of the models that have so far been analyzed. A heuristic analysis based on this fact gives not just the asymptotic mean but also the asymptotic scale factor, again agreeing with all known cases.

Decreasing subsequences in permutations and Wilf equivalence for involutions

In a recent paper, Backelin, West and Xin describe a map $ϕ^*$ that recursively replaces all occurrences of the pattern $k... 21$ in a permutation $σ$ by occurrences of the pattern $(k-1)... 21 k$. The resulting permutation $ϕ^*(σ)$ contains no decreasing subsequence of length $k$. We prove that, rather unexpectedly, the map $ϕ^*$ commutes with taking the inverse of a permutation. In the BWX paper, the definition of $ϕ^*$ is actually extended to full rook placements on a Ferrers board (the permutations correspond to square boards), and the construction of the map $ϕ^*$ is the key step in provi…

Longest common subsequences between words of very unequal length

We consider the expected length of the longest common subsequence between two random words of lengths $n$ and $(1-\varepsilon)kn$ over $k$-symbol alphabet. It is well-known that this quantity is asymptotic to $γ_{k,\varepsilon} n$ for some constant $γ_{k,\varepsilon}$. We show that $γ_{k,\varepsilon}$ is of the order $1-c\varepsilon^2$ uniformly in $k$ and $\varepsilon$. In addition, for large $k$, we give evidence that $γ_{k,\varepsilon}$ approaches $1-\tfrac{1}{4}\varepsilon^2$, and prove a matching lower bound.

Limit Theorems for the Length of the Longest Common Subsequence of Mallows Permutations

The Mallows measure is measure on permutations which was introduced by Mallows in connection with ranking problems in statistics. Under this measure, the probability of a permutation $π$ is proportional to $q^{Inv(π)}$ where $q$ is a positive parameter and $Inv(π)$ is the number of inversions in $π$. We consider the length of the longest common subsequence (LCS) of two independently permutations drawn according to $μ_{n,q}$ and $μ_{n,q'}$ for some $q,q' >0$. We show that when $0<q,q'<1$, the limiting law of the LCS is Gaussian. In the regime that $n(1-q) \to \infty$ and $n(1-q') \to \infty$ we…

变异性与最长k-交替子序列长度的渐近分布

The Variance and the Asymptotic Distribution of the Length of Longest $k$-alternating Subsequences

本文通过求解随机排列中k-峰数的方差，推导出最长k-交替子序列长度的渐近方差公式，并证明了该统计量的中心极限定理。

The Length of the Longest Common Subsequence of Two Independent Mallows Permutations

The Mallows measure is a probability measure on $S_n$ where the probability of a permutation $π$ is proportional to $q^{l(π)}$ with $q > 0$ being a parameter and $l(π)$ the number of inversions in $π$. We prove a weak law of large numbers for the length of the longest common subsequences of two independent permutations drawn from the Mallows measure, when $q$ is a function of $n$ and $n(1-q)$ has limit in $\mathbb{R}$ as $n \to \infty$.

A probabilistic approach to the asymptotics of the length of the longest alternating subsequence

Let $LA_{n}(τ)$ be the length of the longest alternating subsequence of a uniform random permutation $τ\in[n]$. Classical probabilistic arguments are used to rederive the asymptotic mean, variance and limiting law of $LA_{n}(τ)$. Our methodology is robust enough to tackle similar problems for finite alphabet random words or even Markovian sequences in which case our results are mainly original. A sketch of how some cases of pattern restricted permutations can also be tackled with probabilistic methods is finally presented.

A Central Limit Theorem for the Length of the Longest Common Subsequences in Random Words

Let $(X_i)_{i \geq 1}$ and $(Y_i)_{i\geq1}$ be two independent sequences of independent identically distributed random variables taking their values in a common finite alphabet and having the same law. Let $LC_n$ be the length of the longest common subsequences of the two random words $X_1\cdots X_n$ and $Y_1\cdots Y_n$. Under a lower bound assumption on the order of its variance, $LC_n$ is shown to satisfy a central limit theorem. This is in contrast to the limiting distribution of the length of the longest common subsequences in two independent uniform random permutations of $\{1, \dots, n\}…

Fluctuations of the Longest Common Subsequence in the Asymmetric Case of 2- and 3-Letter Alphabets

We investigate the asymptotic standard deviation of the Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) of two independent i.i.d. sequences of length n. The first sequence is drawn from a three letter alphabet {0,1,a}, whilst the second sequence is binary. The main result of this article is that in this asymmetric case, the standard deviation of the length of the LCS is of order square root of n. This confirms Waterman's conjecture for this special case. Our result seems to indicate that in many other situations the order of the standard deviation is also square root of n.

Closeness to the Diagonal for Longest Common Subsequences in Random Words

The nature of the alignment with gaps corresponding to a longest common subsequence (LCS) of two independent iid random sequences drawn from a finite alphabet is investigated. It is shown that such an optimal alignment typically matches pieces of similar short-length. This is of importance in understanding the structure of optimal alignments of two sequences. Moreover, it is also shown that any property, common to two subsequences, typically holds in most parts of the optimal alignment whenever this same property holds, with high probability, for strings of similar short-length. Our results sh…

Random walks and random fixed-point free involutions

A bijection is given between fixed point free involutions of $\{1,2,...,2N\}$ with maximum decreasing subsequence size $2p$ and two classes of vicious (non-intersecting) random walker configurations confined to the half line lattice points $l \ge 1$. In one class of walker configurations the maximum displacement of the right most walker is $p$. Because the scaled distribution of the maximum decreasing subsequence size is known to be in the soft edge GOE (random real symmetric matrices) universality class, the same holds true for the scaled distribution of the maximum displacement of the right …

Longest common subsequences in binary sequences

Given two {0,1}-sequences X and Y of lengths m and n, respectively, we write L(X,Y) to denote the length of the longest common subsequence (LCS) of X and Y, and write L(m,n) to denote the expected value of L(X,Y) when X and Y are random sequences. We study the value of the function z -> lim L(nz,n)/n (as n -> infinity) and the relation of this function to the outstanding problem of computing the Chvatal-Sankoff constant lim L(n,n)/n.

The length of the longest increasing subsequence of Mallows permutation models with $L^1$ and $L^2$ distances

Introduced by Mallows in statistical ranking theory, Mallows permutation model is a class of non-uniform probability measures on the symmetric group $S_n$ that depend on a distance metric $d(σ,τ)$ on $S_n$ and a scale parameter $β$. Taking the distance metric to be the $L^1$ and $L^2$ distances--which are respectively known as Spearman's footrule and Spearman's rank correlation in the statistics literature--leads to Mallows permutation models with $L^1$ and $L^2$ distances. In this paper, we study the length of the longest increasing subsequence of random permutations drawn from Mallows permut…

GL(n,q) and Increasing Subsequences in Nonuniform Random Permutations

Connections between longest increasing subsequences in random permutations and eigenvalues of random matrices with complex entries have been intensely studied. This note applies properties of random elements of the finite general linear group to obtain results about the longest increasing subsequence in non- uniform random permutations.

Lengths of Monotone Subsequences in a Mallows Permutation

We study the length of the longest increasing and longest decreasing subsequences of random permutations drawn from the Mallows measure. Under this measure, the probability of a permutation pi in S_n is proportional to q^{inv(pi)} where q is a real parameter and inv(pi) is the number of inversions in pi. The case q=1 corresponds to uniformly random permutations. The Mallows measure was introduced by Mallows in connection with ranking problems in statistics. We determine the typical order of magnitude of the lengths of the longest increasing and decreasing subsequences, as well as large deviati…

Deposition and Extension Approach to Find Longest Common Subsequence for Multiple Sequences

The problem of finding the longest common subsequence (LCS) for a set of sequences is a very interesting and challenging problem in computer science. This problem is NP-complete, but because of its importance, many heuristic algorithms have been proposed, such as Long Run algorithm and Expansion algorithm. However, the performance of many current heuristic algorithms deteriorates fast when the number of sequences and sequence length increase. In this paper, we have proposed a post process heuristic algorithm for the LCS problem, the Deposition and Extension algorithm (DEA). This algorithm firs…

Longest increasing subsequences, Plancherel-type measure and the Hecke insertion algorithm

We define and study the Plancherel-Hecke probability measure on Young diagrams; the Hecke algorithm of [Buch-Kresch-Shimozono-Tamvakis-Yong '06] is interpreted as a polynomial-time exact sampling algorithm for this measure. Using the results of [Thomas-Yong '07] on jeu de taquin for increasing tableaux, a symmetry property of the Hecke algorithm is proved, in terms of longest strictly increasing/decreasing subsequences of words. This parallels classical theorems of [Schensted '61] and of [Knuth '70], respectively, on the Schensted and Robinson-Schensted-Knuth algorithms. We investigate, and co…

Increasing Subsequences and Kronecker Coefficients

It has been conjectured by W. Chen that the distribution of the length of the longest increasing subsequence in a uniformly random permutation is log-concave. We propose a stronger version of this conjecture which involves the Kronecker coefficients of the symmetric group.

关于所有重数均相等的词中的最长递增子序列

On longest increasing subsequences in words in which all multiplicities are equal

本文针对所有重数相等的多重集排列推广了Gessel的Bessel行列式公式，提出一个表示为Gessel型Toeplitz行列式与对称群轮换指标多项式乘积多重积分的生成函数，用于统计不含特定长度递增子序列的词。

关于共轭不变的独立随机置换的最长公共子序列

On the longest common subsequence of independent random permutations invariant under conjugation

本文证明了共轭不变的独立同分布随机置换的最长公共子序列长度期望大于$\sqrt{n}$且渐近至少为$2\sqrt{n}$阶，还得出其极限波动为Tracy-Widom型的结果。

Generalizations and Variants of the Largest Non-crossing Matching Problem in Random Bipartite Graphs

We are interested in the statistics of the length of the longest increasing subsequence of 2-rowed lexicographically sorted arrays chosen according to distinct families of distributions D = (D_n)_n, and when n goes to infinity. This framework encompasses well studied problems such as the so called Longest Increasing Subsequence problem, the Longest Common Subsequence problem, problems concerning directed bond percolation models, among others. We define several natural families of distinct distributions and characterize the asymptotic behavior of the expected length of a longest increasing subs…

具有原子的分布中最长递增子序列，以及非均匀的Hammersley过程

Longest increasing subsequences for distributions with atoms, and an inhomogeneous Hammersley process

本文研究了具有原子的分布中最长递增子序列的渐进行为，通过变分问题和非均匀Hammersley过程的耦合，揭示了离散情况下增长率的广泛范围。

Fluctuations of the Longest Common Subsequence for Sequences of Independent Blocks

The problem of the fluctuation of the Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) of two i.i.d. sequences of length $n>0$ has been open for decades. There exist contradicting conjectures on the topic. Chvatal and Sankoff conjectured in 1975 that asymptotically the order should be $n^{2/3}$, while Waterman conjectured in 1994 that asymptotically the order should be $n$. A contiguous substring consisting only of one type of symbol is called a block. In the present work, we determine the order of the fluctuation of the LCS for a special model of sequences consisting of i.i.d. blocks whose lengths are unifor…

随机可分排列中最长交替子序列的均值与方差

Mean and variance of the longest alternating subsequence in a random separable permutation

本文研究随机可分排列中最长交替子序列的长度，证明其期望渐近为(2-√2)n，并给出相应四个变体的方差渐近为(16-11√2)n/2。

二进型混沌轨道的最长递增子序列

Longest increasing subsequences of dyadic-type chaotic orbits

该研究针对二进型混沌区间映射生成的序列，计算其最长递增子序列长度的渐近行为，发现其与均匀随机排列经典问题的主导渐近结果一致。

多个字符串最长公共子序列的期望长度

Expected Length of the Longest Common Subsequence of Multiple Strings

研究广义Chvátal-Sankoff常数$γ_{k,d}$（表示$d$个随机字符串LCS的归一化期望长度），推导$γ_{2,d}$的渐近紧界及$d\ge Ω(\log k)$时$γ_{k,d}$的渐近近优界。

Repetition-free longest common subsequence of random sequences

A repetition free Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) of two sequences x and y is an LCS of x and y where each symbol may appear at most once. Let R denote the length of a repetition free LCS of two sequences of n symbols each one chosen randomly, uniformly, and independently over a k-ary alphabet. We study the asymptotic, in n and k, behavior of R and establish that there are three distinct regimes, depending on the relative speed of growth of n and k. For each regime we establish the limiting behavior of R. In fact, we do more, since we actually establish tail bounds for large deviations of R f…

Staircase patterns in words: subsequences, subwords, and separation number

We revisit staircases for words and prove several exact as well as asymptotic results for longest left-most staircase subsequences and subwords and staircase separation number, the latter being defined as the number of consecutive maximal staircase subwords packed in a word. We study asymptotic properties of the sequence $h_{r,k}(n),$ the number of $n$-array words with $r$ separations over alphabet $[k]$ and show that for any $r\geq 0,$ the growth sequence $\big(h_{r,k}(n)\big)^{1/n}$ converges to a characterized limit, independent of $r.$ In addition, we study the asymptotic behavior of the r…

避免长度为三的模式的随机排列中某些重复上升/下降模式的最长子序列

Longest subsequence for certain repeated up/down patterns in random permutations avoiding a pattern of length three

本文研究避免模式132的随机排列中重复UUD与UUUD的最长子序列，证明其期望长度分别渐近于3n/7和4n/11，并推广至所有长度为三的避免模式。

Monotone Subsequences in High-Dimensional Permutations

This paper is part of the ongoing effort to study high-dimensional permutations. We prove the analogue to the Erdős-Szekeres theorem: For every $k\ge1$, every order-$n$ $k$-dimensional permutation contains a monotone subsequence of length $Ω_{k}\left(\sqrt{n}\right)$, and this is tight. On the other hand, and unlike the classical case, the longest monotone subsequence in a random $k$-dimensional permutation of order $n$ is asymptotically almost surely $Θ_{k}\left(n^{\frac{k}{k+1}}\right)$.

随机排列中最长递增子序列的渐近性

Asymptotics of the Longest Increasing Subsequence in Random Permutations

本文借助 Robinson--Schensted--Knuth 对应等经典组合工具，研究随机排列中最长递增子序列的渐近行为，证明其期望长度以 $2\sqrt{n}$ 增长，并直观统一了极限形状与波动分布的经典理论。

The asymptotics of monotone subsequences of involutions

We compute the limiting distributions of the lengths of the longest monotone subsequences of random (signed) involutions with or without conditions on the number of fixed points (and negated points) as the sizes of the involutions tend to infinity. The resulting distributions are, depending on the number of fixed points, (1) the Tracy-Widom distributions for the largest eigenvalues of random GOE, GUE, GSE matrices, (2) the normal distribution, or (3) new classes of distributions which interpolate between pairs of the Tracy-Widom distributions. We also consider the second rows of the correspond…

Sparse long blocks and the variance of the longest common subsequences in random words

Consider two independent random strings having same length and taking values uniformly in a common finite alphabet. We study the order of the variance of the length of the longest common subsequences (LCS) of these strings when long blocks, or other types of atypical substrings, are sparsely added into one of them. Under weak conditions on the derivative of the mean LCS-curve, the order of the variance of the LCS is shown to be linear in the length of the strings. We also argue that our proofs carry over to many models used by computational biologists to simulate DNA-sequences. This is the fir…

On the Distributions of the Lengths of the Longest Monotone Subsequences in Random Words

We consider the distributions of the lengths of the longest weakly increasing and strongly decreasing subsequences in words of length N from an alphabet of k letters. We find Toeplitz determinant representations for the exponential generating functions (on N) of these distribution functions and show that they are expressible in terms of solutions of Painlevé V equations. We show further that in the weakly increasing case the generating function gives the distribution of the smallest eigenvalue in the k x k Laguerre random matrix ensemble and that the distribution itself has, after centering an…