Sharp bounds for the variance of linear statistics on random permutations

Abstract

We are concerned with the variance of a completely additive function defined on the symmetric group endowed with the Ewens probability. Overcoming specific dependence of the summands, we obtain the upper and lower bounds including optimal constants. We also derive a decomposition of such a function into a sum with uncorrelated summands. The results can be reformulated for the linear statistics defined on vectors distributed according to the Ewens sampling formula.