TransWikia.com

Number of fixed points of a random permutation

Mathematics Asked by AliBA on February 12, 2021

Consider a random permutation of numbers $1,…,31415$. Let $A$ be the number of its fixed points (i.e. numbers which are not moved by permutation). Let $B$ be the number of non-fixed points. What is the variance of $B-A$?

I have no idea.

One Answer

Let $N = 31415$. So in this case $N = A + B$.

$implies Var(B-A) = Var(N-2A) = Var(-2A) = 4*Var(A)$

Therefore our primary task is to calculate $Var(A)$. We can use identity variables.

Let $X_i$ be identity random variable which becomes $1$ when ith element is at the ith position in the permutation.

$$A = X_1 + X_2 + .... + X_n$$

$X_i$ is $1$ with probability $1/N$ and $0$ with probability $(N-1)/N$

By linearity of expectation $E[A] = frac{1}{N} times N = 1$

$$E[A^2] = displaystyle sum_{n=1}^N E[X_i^2] + 2displaystyle sum_{i<j}E[X_iX_j] $$

Since $X_i$ is indicator variable $E[X_i] = E[X_i^2] = 1$

If $i<j, E[X_iX_j] = (n-2)!/n!$, because in $(n-2)!$ permutations $X_i = 1$ and $X_j = 1$.

$$E[A^2] = 1 + 2* n(n-1)/2 times (n-2)!/n! = 1 + 1 = 2$$

$$var(A) = E[A^2] - (E[A])^2 = 2 - 1 = 1.$$

$$var(B-A) = 4 times var(A) = 4$$

Answered by Sameer Pande on February 12, 2021

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP