All Questions
7 questions
161
votes
37
answers
17k
views
Conceptual reason why the sign of a permutation is well-defined?
Teaching group theory this semester, I found myself laboring through a proof that the sign of a permutation is a well-defined homomorphism $\operatorname{sgn} : \Sigma_n \to \Sigma_2$. An insightful ...
- 63.9k
12
votes
4
answers
1k
views
How many non-isomorphic abelian subgroups of the permutation group $S_n$?
I am interested in how many (pairwise non-isomorphic) subgroups of the permutation group $S_n$ are abelian. ($n \in \mathbb{N}$ arbitrary and possibly big)
Are you aware of any references which treat ...
- 263
10
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Number of Permutations?
Edit: This is a modest rephrasing of the question as originally stated below the fold: for $n \geq 3$, let $\sigma \in S_n$ be a fixed-point-free permutation. How many fixed-point-free permutations $\...
- 101
6
votes
1
answer
500
views
Rank and frequency of permutations
(a) Let $[n] = \{1,\dotsc,n\}$, and let $\pi:[n]\to [n]$ be a permutation. Define an $n$-by-$n$ matrix $A=A(\pi)$ as follows: $A_{i,j}=1$ if $j>i$ and $\pi(j)>\pi(i)$, $A_{i,j}=-1$ If $j<i$ ...
- 20.2k
5
votes
2
answers
245
views
Counting transitive generators according to coset type
Let $\sigma=(1\;2)(3\;4)\cdots (n-1\; n)$ be a fixed-point-free involution in $S_{2n}$. I want to count permutations $\pi$ such that the group $\langle \pi,\sigma\rangle$ generated by $\pi$ and $\...
- 1,549
4
votes
1
answer
158
views
Counting "deflected" permutations: Part I
Let $\mathfrak{S}_n$ denote the group of permutations on $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$. Now, introduce the sets
$$\mathcal{A}_n^{(k)}:=\{\pi\in\mathfrak{S}_n: -1\leq \pi(j)-j\leq k,\,\forall j\}.$$
I would like ...
- 43.2k
3
votes
4
answers
654
views
A generalization of Landau's function
For a given $n > 0$ Landau's function is defined as $$g(n) := \max\{ \operatorname{lcm}(n_1, \ldots, n_k) \mid n = n_1 + \ldots + n_k \mbox{ for some $k$}\},$$
the least common multiple of all ...
- 798