GOE Version of Longest Increasing Subsequence

Question

Let $S_n$ be the symmetric group equipped with uniform measure. For any $\pi\in S_n$, let $L_n=L_n(\pi)$ denote the longest increasing subsequence. A celebrated result of Baik, Deift and Johansson states that

$$P\left(\frac{L_n-2\sqrt{n}}{n^{1/6}}\leq s\right)\rightarrow F_2(s),$$

where $F_2(s)$ is the Tracy-Widom distribution, describing the largest eigenvalue of a GUE matrix. The connection between longest increasing subsequence, representation theory and random matrix theory is now well established.

Question: is there another natural statistic on $S_n$ resembling something akin to $L_n$ which follows a GOE distribution? Specifically, calling such a statistic $M_n$, I'm interested in a similar result of the form

$$P\left(\frac{M_n-2\sqrt{n}}{n^{1/6}}\leq s\right)\rightarrow F_1(s),$$ where $F_1(s)$ is now the Tracy Widom distribution of the largest eigenvalue of a GOE. Ideally, the scaling $n^{1/6}$ should be the same. I would also prefer to retain uniform measure on $S_n$ but, of course I would be very interested to hear of other examples. As well, the shift can be different as well.

I'm aware of numerous results in combinatorics where $F_1$ comes up in. For example, the fluctations of random aztec diamond tilings follow an Airy process and therefore have GOE behavior. There the scaling is $n^{1/3}$. As well, it comes up in viscous walkers and nonintersecting brownian motion. I mention these examples because there are definitely tangentially linked to $S_n$ through representation theory and growth processes. However, as I said I would ideally like an example of something that naturally occurs on $S_n$.

Answer 1

Involutions $s=s^{-1}$ in $S_n$ are modeled by the Tracy-Widom distribution $F_1$ for real symmetric matrices (GOE): Take as $S_n^\ast$ the subset of involutions in $S_n$, and let $M_n$ be the corresponding random variable for the longest increasing subsequence. Then the limit distribution is $$P\left(\frac{M_n − 2\sqrt n}{n^{1/6}}\leq s\right)\rightarrow F_1(s).$$

J. Baik and E.M. Rains, Symmetrized random permutations (1999).

The same paper also gives a generalization that is modeled by the Tracy-Widom distribution $F_4$ for the GSE (Gaussian symplectic ensemble). For a recent review article, see:

G. Olshanski, Random permutations and related topics (2011).