Random permutations and related topics

Abstract

This article considers some topics in random permutations and random partitions highlighting analogies with random matrix theory (RMT). An ensemble of random permutations is determined by a probability distribution on Sn, the set of permutations of [n] := {1, 2, . . . , n}. In many ways, the symmetric group Sn is linked to classical matrix groups. Ensembles of random permutations should be given the same treatment as random matrix ensembles, such as the ensembles of classical compact groups and symmetric spaces of compact type with normalized invariant measure. The article first describes the Ewens measures, virtual permutations, and the Poisson-Dirichlet distributions before discussing results related to the Plancherel measure on the set of equivalence classes of irreducible representations of Sn and its consecutive generalizations: the z-measures and the Schur measures.