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Greg Kuperberg
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It certainly isn't difficult to obtain an upper bound of $n\lceil \log_2 n \rceil = O(\log_2 n!)$. All you need to do is to separately learn each bit of each value of the permutation. This looks like it is only roughly optimal, but actually it is already $(1+o(1))(\log_2 n!)$. (Thanks to t3suji for noticing this.) However, the $o(1)$ term only decays logarithmically in this algorithm, so you could ask whether you could make it $(1+O(n^{-\alpha}))(\log_2 n!)$.

I agree with Michael that it seems similar to the asymptotic question of sorting with comparisons. However, in the usual version of that problem, you are allowed to move elements based on an incomplete list of comparisons, which then amounts to adaptive comparisons. You could call this new question "non-adaptive Mastermind for permutations with matrix guesses". Michael also suggested the restricted problem of permutation guesses, which seems like a more difficult problem to me.

Greg Kuperberg
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