We show that the problem of computing the distance of a given permutation from a subgroup $H$ of $S_n$ is in general NP-complete, even under the restriction that $H$ is elementary Abelian of exponent 2. The problem is shown to be polynomial-time equivalent to a problem related to finding a maximal partition of the edges of an Eulerian directed graph into cycles and this problem is in turn equivalent to the standard NP-complete problem of Boolean satisfiability.
In [Baumeister, H., Nill, Paffenholz, On permutation polytopes, Adv. Math. 222 (2009), 431-452 / arXiv:0709.1615] we conjectured a characterization of subgroups H of a permutation group G so that, on the level of permutation polytopes, P(H) is a face of P(G). Here we present the embarrassingly simple proof of this conjecture.
Motivated by a problem from behavioral economics, we study subgroups of permutation groups that have a certain strong symmetry. Given a fixed permutation, consider the set of all permutations with disjoint inversion sets. The group is called non-nudgable, if the cardinality of this set always remains the same when replacing the initial permutation with its inverse. It is called nudgable otherwise. We show that all full permutation groups, standard dihedral groups, half of the alternating groups, and any abelian subgroup are non-nudgable. In the right probabilistic sense, it is thus quite likel…
We study the representations of the commutator subgroup of the braid group with n strands in the symmetric group of degree r. Motivated by some experimental results, we conjecture that for n>r, every such representation is trivial.
In the first paper in this series we estimated the probability that a random permutation $π\in\mathcal{S}_n$ has a fixed set of a given size. In this paper, we elaborate on the same method to estimate the probability that $π$ has $m$ disjoint fixed sets of prescribed sizes $k_1,\dots,k_m$, where $k_1+\cdots+k_m=n$. We deduce an estimate for the proportion of permutations contained in a transitive subgroup other than $\mathcal{S}_n$ or $\mathcal{A}_n$. This theorem consists of two parts: an estimate for the proportion of permutations contained in an imprimitive transitive subgroup, and an estim…
The problem of describing the invariance groups of unordered relations, called briefly \emph{relation groups}, goes back to classical work by H. Wielandt. In general, the problem turned out to be hard, and so far it has been settled only for a few special classes of permutation groups. The problem have been solved, in particular, for the class of primitive permutation groups, using the classification of finite simple groups and other deep results of permutation group theory. In this paper we show that, if $G$ is a finite simple primitive permutation group other then the alternating group $A_n$…
Let $p$ be an odd prime and let $n$ be a natural number. In this article we determine the irreducible constituents of the permutation module induced by the action of the symmetric group $\mathfrak{S}_n$ on the cosets of a Sylow $p$-subgroup $P_n$. As a consequence, we determine the number of irreducible representations of the corresponding Hecke algebra $\mathcal{H}(\mathfrak{S}_n, P_n, 1_{P_n})$.
Following Babai's algorithm for the string isomorphism problem, we determine that it is possible to write expressions of short length describing certain permutation cosets, including all permutation subgroups; this is feasible both in the original version of the algorithm and in its CFSG-free version, partially done by Babai and completed by Pyber. The existence of such descriptions gives a weak form of the Cameron-Maróti classification even without assuming CFSG. We also thoroughly explicate Babai's recursion process (as given in Helfgott) and obtain explicit constants for the runtime of the …
A permutation group is called semiprimitive if each of its normal subgroups is either transitive or semiregular. Given nontrivial finite transitive permutation groups $L_1$ and $L_2$ with $L_1$ not semiprimitive, we construct an infinite family of rank two amalgams of permutation type $[L_1,L_2]$ and Borel subgroups of strictly increasing order. As an application, we show that there is no bound on the order of edge-stabilisers in locally $[L_1,L_2]$ graphs. We also consider the corresponding question for amalgams of rank $k\geq 3$. We completely resolve this by showing that the order of the Bo…
We construct classes of permutation polynomials over F_{Q^2} by exhibiting classes of low-degree rational functions over F_{Q^2} which induce bijections on the set of (Q+1)-th roots of unity in F_{Q^2}. As a consequence, we prove two conjectures about permutation trinomials from a recent paper by Tu, Zeng, Hu and Li.
Let $G$ be a permutation group on a set $Ω$, and $k$ a positive integer. The $k$-closure $G^{(k)}$ of $G$ is the largest subgroup of $\operatorname{Sym}(Ω)$, with the same as $G$ orbits of componentwise action on $Ω^k$. We prove that the $k$-closure of a finite nilpotent permutation group is the direct product of $k$-closures of its Sylow subgroups.
We find an explicit expression for the generating function of the number of permutations in S_n avoiding a subgroup of S_k generated by all but one simple transpositions. The generating function turns out to be rational, and its denominator is a rook polynomial for a rectangular board.
For an arbitrary finite permutation group $G$, subgroup of the symmetric group $S_\ell$, we determine the permutations involving only members of $G$ as $\ell$-patterns, i.e., avoiding all patterns in the set $S_\ell \setminus G$. The set of all $n$-permutations with this property constitutes again a permutation group. We consequently refine and strengthen the classification of sets of permutations closed under pattern involvement and composition that is due to Atkinson and Beals.
In this paper the relationship between $S$-subgroups in $\Z_{2}^{n}$ and binary codes is shown. If the codes used are both $P(T)$-codes and $G$-codes, then the $S$-subgroup is free. The codes constructed are cyclic, decimated or symmetric and the $S$-subgroups obtained are free under the action the cyclic permutation subgroup, invariants under the action the decimated permutation subgroup and symmetric under the action of symmetric permutation subgroup, respectively. Also it is shows that there is no codes generating whole $\Z_{2}^{n}$ in any $\G_{n}(a)$-complete $S$-set of the $S$-ring $\math…
There is a connection between permutation groups and permutation patterns: for any subgroup $G$ of the symmetric group $S_\ell$ and for any $n \geq \ell$, the set of $n$-permutations involving only members of $G$ as $\ell$-patterns is a subgroup of $S_n$. Making use of the monotone Galois connection induced by the pattern avoidance relation, we characterize the permutation groups that arise via pattern avoidance as automorphism groups of relations of a certain special form. We also investigate a related monotone Galois connection for permutation groups and describe its closed sets and kernels …
We show that, there exists a constant $a$ such that, for every subgroup $H$ of a finite group $G$, the number of maximal subgroups of $G$ containing $H$ is bounded above by $a|G:H|^{3/2}$. In particular, a transitive permutation group of degree $n$ has at most $an^{3/2}$ maximal systems of imprimitivity. When $G$ is soluble, generalizing a classic result of Tim Wall, we prove a much stroger bound, that is, the number of maximal subgroups of $G$ containing $H$ is at most $|G:H|-1$.
We prove a result on the asymptotic proportion of randomly chosen pairs of permutations in the symmetric group $S_n$ which "invariably" generate a nonsolvable subgroup, i.e., whose cycle structures cannot possibly both occur in the same solvable subgroup of $S_n$. As an application, we obtain that for a large degree "random" integer polynomial $f$, reduction modulo two different primes can be expected to suffice to prove the nonsolvability of $Gal(f/\mathbb{Q})$.
In this paper, we introduce plane permutations, i.e. pairs $\mathfrak{p}=(s,π)$ where $s$ is an $n$-cycle and $π$ is an arbitrary permutation, represented as a two-row array. Accordingly a plane permutation gives rise to three distinct permutations: the permutation induced by the upper horizontal ($s$), the vertical $π$) and the diagonal ($D_{\mathfrak{p}}$) of the array. The latter can also be viewed as the three permutations of a hypermap. In particular, a map corresponds to a plane permutation, in which the diagonal is a fixed point-free involution. We study the transposition action on plan…
A classical recursive construction for mutually orthogonal latin squares (MOLS) is shown to hold more generally for a class of permutation codes of length $n$ and minimum distance $n-1$. When such codes of length $p+1$ are included as ingredients, we obtain a general lower bound $M(n,n-1) \ge n^{1.079}$ for large $n$, gaining a small improvement on the guarantee given from MOLS.
The permutation representation afforded by a Coxeter group W acting on the cosets of a standard parabolic subgroup inherits many nice properties from W such as a shellable Bruhat order and a flat deformation over Z[q] to a representation of the corresponding Hecke algebra. In this paper we define a larger class of ``quasiparabolic" subgroups (more generally, quasiparabolic W-sets), and show that they also inherit these properties. Our motivating example is the action of the symmetric group on fixed-point-free involutions by conjugation.
In this paper we prove that two quantities relating to the length of permutations defined on trees are independent of the structures of trees. We also find that these results are closely related to the results obtained by Graham and Pollak (Bell System Tech. J. 50(1971) 2495--2519) and by Bapat, Kirkland, and Neumann (Linear Alg. Appl. 401(2005) 193--209).
We prove that the combinatorial distance between any two reduced expressions of a given permutation of {1, ..., n} in terms of transpositions lies in O(n^4), a sharp bound. Using a connection with the intersection numbers of certain curves in van Kampen diagrams, we prove that this bound is sharp, and give a practical criterion for proving that the derivations provided by the reversing algorithm of [Dehornoy, JPAA 116 (1997) 115-197] are optimal. We also show the existence of length l expressions whose reversing requires C l^4 elementary steps.
In this paper we generalize permutations to plane permutations. We employ this framework to derive a combinatorial proof of a result of Zagier and Stanley, that enumerates the number of $n$-cycles $ω$, for which $ω(12\cdots n)$ has exactly $k$ cycles. This quantity is $0$, if $n-k$ is odd and $\frac{2C(n+1,k)}{n(n+1)}$, otherwise, where $C(n,k)$ is the unsigned Stirling number of the first kind. The proof is facilitated by a natural transposition action on plane permutations which gives rise to various recurrences. Furthermore we study several distance problems of permutations. It turns out th…
Let $N$ be a normal subgroup of a finite group $G$. For a faithful $N$-set $Δ$, applying the university embedding theorem one can construct a faithful $G$-set $Ω$. In this short note, it is proved that if the $2$-closure of $N$ in $Ω$ is equal to $N$, then the $2$-closure of $N$ in $Δ$ is also equal to $N$; in addition, it is proved that any abelian normal subgroup of a finite totally $2$-closed group is cyclic; finally, it is proved that if a finite nilpotent group is a direct of two nilpotent subgroups where the two factors have coprime orders and both of them are totally 2-closed then G is …
Let G,H be closed permutation groups on an infinite set X, with H a subgroup of G. It is shown that if G and H are orbit-equivalent, that is, have the same orbits on the collection of finite subsets of X, and G is primitive but not 2-transitive, then G=H.
Motivated by classification, up to order isomorphism, of some dense subgroups of Euclidean space that are free of minimal rank, we obtain apparently new invariants for an equivalence relation (intermediate between Hermite and Smith) on integer matrices. These then participate in the classification of the dense subgroups. The same equivalence relation has appeared before, in the classification of lattice simplices. We discuss this equivalence relation (called {\it permutation-Hermite}), obtain fairly fine invariants for it, and have density results, and some formulas counting the numbers of equ…
Twisted permutation codes, introduced recently by the second and third authors, are frequency permutation arrays. They are similar to repetition permutation codes, in that they are obtained by a repetition construction applied to a smaller code. It was previously shown that the minimum distance of a twisted permutation code is at least the minimum distance of a corresponding repetition permutation code, but in some instances can be larger. We construct two new infinite families of twisted permutation codes with minimum distances strictly greater than those for the corresponding repetition perm…
We introduce twisted permutation codes, which are frequency permutation arrays analogous to repetition permutation codes, namely, codes obtained from the repetition construction applied to a permutation code. In particular, we show that a lower bound for the minimum distance of a twisted permutation code is the minimum distance of a repetition permutation code. We give examples where this bound is tight, but more importantly, we give examples of twisted permutation codes with minimum distance strictly greater than this lower bound.
A group $G$ is said to be totally $2$-closed if in each of its faithful permutation representations, say on a set $Ω$, $G$ is the largest subgroup of $\mathrm{Sym}(Ω)$ which leaves invariant each of the $G$-orbits for the induced action on $Ω\times Ω$. We prove that there are precisely $47$ finite totally $2$-closed groups with trivial Fitting subgroup. Each of these groups is a direct product of pairwise non-isomorphic sporadic simple groups, with the direct factors coming from the Janko groups $\mathrm{J}_1, \mathrm{J}_3$ and $\mathrm{J}_4$, together with $\mathrm{Ly}, \mathrm{Th}$ and the M…
In this paper we study the parameterized complexity of two well-known permutation group problems which are NP-complete. 1. Given a permutation group G=<S>, subgroup of $S_n$, and a parameter $k$, find a permutation $π$ in G such that $|{i\in [n]\mid π(i)\ne i}|$ is at least $k$. This generalizes the well-known NP-complete problem of finding a fixed-point free permutation in G. (this is the case when $k=n$). We show that this problem with parameter $k$ is fixed parameter tractable. In the process, we give a simple deterministic polynomial-time algorithm for finding a fixed point free element in…
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…
We show that for every hereditary permutation property P and every eps>0, there exists an integer M such that if a permutation p is eps-far from P in the Kendall's tau distance, then a random subpermutation of p of order M has the property P with probability at most eps. This settles an open problem whether hereditary permutation properties are strongly testable, i.e., testable with respect to the Kendall's tau distance. In addition, our method also yields a proof of a conjecture of Hoppen, Kohayakawa, Moreira and Sampaio on the relation of the rectangular distance and the Kendall's tau distan…
The famous Burnside-Schur theorem states that every primitive finite permutation group containing a regular cyclic subgroup is either 2-transitive or isomorphic to a subgroup of a 1-dimensional affine group of prime degree. It is known that this theorem can be expressed as a statement on Schur rings over a finite cyclic group. Generalizing the latters we introduce Schur rings over a finite commutative ring and prove an analog of this statement for them. Besides, the finite local commutative rings are characterized in the permutation group terms.
Permutation arrays under the Chebyshev metric have been considered for error correction in noisy channels. Let $P(n,d)$ denote the maximum size of any array of permutations on $n$ symbols with pairwise Chebyshev distance $d$. We give new techniques and improved upper and lower bounds on $P(n,d)$, including a precise formula for $P(n,2)$.
There exists a bijection between one stack sortable permutations --permutations which avoid the pattern 231-- and planar trees. We define an edit distance between permutations which is coherent with the standard edit distance between trees. This one-to-one correspondence yields a polynomial algorithm for the subpermutation problem for $(231)$ avoiding permutations. Moreover, we obtain the generating function of the edit distance between ordered trees and some special ones. For the general case we show that the mean edit distance between a planar tree and all other planar trees is at least $n/l…
The regular objects in various categories, such as maps, hypermaps or covering spaces, can be identified with the normal subgroups N of a given group Γ, with quotient group isomorphic to Γ/N. It is shown how to enumerate such objects with a given finite automorphism group G, how to represent them all as quotients of a single regular object U(G), and how they are acted on by the outer automorphism group of Γ. Examples constructed include kaleidoscopic maps with trinity symmetry.
We propose a new method of constructing q-ary propelinear perfect codes. The approach utilizes permutations of the fixed length q-ary vectors that arise from the automorphisms of the regular subgroups of the affine group. For any prime q it is shown that the new class contains an infinite series of q-ary propelinear perfect codes of varying ranks of growing length.
In this paper we present a simple framework to study various distance problems of permutations, including the transposition and block-interchange distance of permutations as well as the reversal distance of signed permutations. These problems are very important in the study of the evolution of genomes. We give a general formulation for lower bounds of the transposition and block-interchange distance from which the existing lower bounds obtained by Bafna and Pevzner, and Christie can be easily derived. As to the reversal distance of signed permutations, we translate it into a block-interchange …
A normal variety $X$ is called $H$-spherical for the action of the complex reductive group $H$ if it contains a dense orbit of some Borel subgroup of $H$. We resolve a conjecture of Hodges--Yong by showing that their spherical permutations are characterized by permutation pattern avoidance. Together with results of Gao--Hodges--Yong this implies that the sphericality of a Schubert variety $X_w$ with respect to the largest possible Levi subgroup is characterized by this same pattern avoidance condition.
Mallows permutation model, introduced by Mallows in statistical ranking theory, is a class of non-uniform probability measures on the symmetric group $S_n$. The model depends on a distance metric $d(σ,τ)$ on $S_n$, which can be chosen from a host of metrics on permutations. In this paper, we focus on Mallows permutation models with $L^1$ and $L^2$ distances, respectively known in the statistics literature as Spearman's footrule and Spearman's rank correlation. Unlike most of the random permutation models that have been analyzed in the literature, Mallows permutation models with $L^1$ and $L^2$…
We study $P(n,3)$, the size of the largest subset of the set of all permutations $S_n$ with minimum Kendall $τ$-distance $3$. Using a combination of group theory and integer programming, we reduced the upper bound of $P(p,3)$ from $(p-1)!-1$ to $(p-1)!-\lceil\frac{p}{3}\rceil+2\leq (p-1)!-2$ for all primes $p\geq 11$. In special cases where $n$ is equal to $6,7,11,13,14,15$ and $17$ we reduced the upper bound of $P(n,3)$ by $3,3,9,11,1,1$ and $4$, respectively.
