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$\DeclareMathOperator\PGL{PGL}\DeclareMathOperator\Conj{Conj}$Let $G$ be the symmetric group $S_n$ or the projective general linear group $\PGL_2(n)$.

Let $X$ be a cyclically reduced word in the abstract variables $x_1, x_2, \ldots,x_k$, i.e. $X$ is a product containing $x_1, x_2, \ldots,x_k$ and their inverses, without any element appearing next to its own inverse in any cyclic permutation. (Only words with length $4$, $6$, $8$ are needed in my research.)

Consider the probability $P$ that the word sums to $1$, with each $x_i$ chosen uniformly and independently from $G$.

Question:

What are the upper bounds of $\log_{|G|}P$?

If $\log_{|G|}P$ converges when $n\to\infty$, what's the value?

Answers are acceptable for either $G=S_n$ or $G=\PGL_2(n)$.

Known:

If there's a variable occurring only once in $X$, then $P$ is exactly $1/|G|$.

If $X=x_1^k$, then the limit is $-1/k$ for symmetric groups by David E Speyer's argument.

As Richard Stanley pointed out, if $X=x_1x_2x_1^{-1}x_2^{-1}$, then $P=|\Conj(G)|/|G|$. ($|\Conj(G)|$ is the number of conjugacy classes of $G$)

The formula $P=|\Conj(G)|/|G|$ holds for the words $x_1x_1x_2x_2$ and $x_1x_2x_1x_2^{-1}$ if all the characters of $G$ are real, and that's exactly the case for $S_n$ and $\PGL_2(n)$.

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  • $\begingroup$ What is $\varepsilon$? It doesn't seem to appear anywhere else except in the clause "for each $\varepsilon >0$". $\endgroup$ Jun 8, 2019 at 13:02
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    $\begingroup$ I have edited the question: There should be no $ε$. $\endgroup$ Jun 8, 2019 at 13:03
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    $\begingroup$ If $X = A^k$ then the limit is $-1/k$. The generating function for the probability that an element of $S_n$ obeys $g^k=1$ is $f_k(x) := \exp \left( \sum_{d|k} t^d/d \right)$. Taking the contour integral $\oint f_k(x) x^{-N-1} dx$ around a circle of radius $N^{1/k}$ gives asymptotics of the form $N^{-N/k} \exp(N/k+o(N))$. $\endgroup$ Jun 8, 2019 at 13:42
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    $\begingroup$ A paper that is somewhat related is A. Nica, On the number of cycles of given length of a free word in several random permutations, Random Structures & Algorithms 5 (1994), 703-730. An unrelated comment: for $X=xyx^{-1}y^{-1}$, the limit is 1, since the number of commuting pairs in any finite group $G$ is $|G|\cdot k(G)$, where $k(G)$ is the number of conjugacy classes, and the number of conjugacy classes in $S_n$ is around $e^{c\sqrt{n}}$. $\endgroup$ Jun 9, 2019 at 13:15
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    $\begingroup$ As for $X=x_1x_1x_2x_2$, this is part of Exercise 7.69(h) of Enumerative Combinatorics, vol. 2. Possibly part (i) can solve the problem for $xy^kxy^{-k}$ and $xy^kx^{-1}y^k$, but I have not tried to do this. See also (f) for a possible approach to $X=x_1^{a_1}\cdots x_m^{a_m}$. $\endgroup$ Jun 9, 2019 at 22:22

1 Answer 1

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$\DeclareMathOperator\PGL{PGL}$I believe the best result in this direction is due to M. Larsen & A. Shalev (2012); see this paper. I'll summarize their results here. This doesn't answer the questions whether the limit exists or what its precise value is, though, so this is not a full answer.

Denote the length of the word $X$ by $\ell$ (while $k$ is the size of the alphabet).

As for $S_n$, Proposition 2.3 gives $P < n!^{-\eta}$ for large enough $n$, if $\eta < \frac{2k-1}{4\left((2k)^{2\ell+1}-1\right)}$, so $\log_{|S_n|}P < -\eta. $

As for $\PGL_n(\mathbb{F}_q)$, Proposition 3.3 gives $\log_{|G|}P \le -\eta$ for large enough $n$ (and every $q$), if $\eta < \frac{1}{1800\ell^2}$. (This holds for all classical groups of Lie type).

Shalev and Larsen handle all finite simple groups in their paper. They also refer to this paper, which gives a bound for simple groups $G$ of Lie type of bounded rank $r$: $ P \le \frac{C}{q}$ where $C = C(r, X)$ is a constant, and $q \ge G^{\epsilon}$ for some $\epsilon = \epsilon(r)$, hence $\log_{|G|}P \le -\eta$ for large enough $G$ if $\eta < \epsilon$. EDITED: this last paragraph answers the $n=2, q\to\infty$ case.

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  • $\begingroup$ OP asked the asymptotics for $\mathrm{PGL}_2(q)$ for large $q$, nor $\mathrm{PGL}_n(q)$ for fixed $q$ and large $n$ (but agree that the analogy with $S_n$ makes it more natural to consider $\mathrm{PGL}_n(q)$ for $n\to\infty$). $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Mar 5, 2022 at 11:07
  • $\begingroup$ The last paragraph handles this case (bounded rank). I admit I wasn't sure which group OP meant, so I tried to answer both possible meanings. $\endgroup$ Mar 5, 2022 at 12:08

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