A Lower Bound on the Expected Number of Distinct Patterns in a Random Permutation

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Main Authors: Borrás-Serrano, Verónica, Byrne, Isabel, Godbole, Anant, Veimau, Nathaniel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Borrás-Serrano, Verónica
Byrne, Isabel
Godbole, Anant
Veimau, Nathaniel
author_facet Borrás-Serrano, Verónica
Byrne, Isabel
Godbole, Anant
Veimau, Nathaniel
contents Let $π_n$ be a uniformly chosen random permutation on $[n]$. The authors of [2] showed that the expected number of distinct consecutive patterns of all lengths $k\in\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ in $π_n$ was $\frac{n^2}{2}(1-o(1))$ as $n\to\infty$, exhibiting the fact that random permutations pack consecutive patterns near-perfectly. A conjecture was made in [11] that the same is true for non-consecutive patterns, i.e., that there are $2^n(1-o(1))$ distinct non-consecutive patterns expected in a random permutation. This conjecture is false, but, in this paper, we prove that a random permutation contains an expected number of at least $2^{n-1}(1+o(1))$ distinct permutations; this number is half of the range of the number of distinct permutations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_13194
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Lower Bound on the Expected Number of Distinct Patterns in a Random Permutation
Borrás-Serrano, Verónica
Byrne, Isabel
Godbole, Anant
Veimau, Nathaniel
Combinatorics
Probability
05A05
Let $π_n$ be a uniformly chosen random permutation on $[n]$. The authors of [2] showed that the expected number of distinct consecutive patterns of all lengths $k\in\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ in $π_n$ was $\frac{n^2}{2}(1-o(1))$ as $n\to\infty$, exhibiting the fact that random permutations pack consecutive patterns near-perfectly. A conjecture was made in [11] that the same is true for non-consecutive patterns, i.e., that there are $2^n(1-o(1))$ distinct non-consecutive patterns expected in a random permutation. This conjecture is false, but, in this paper, we prove that a random permutation contains an expected number of at least $2^{n-1}(1+o(1))$ distinct permutations; this number is half of the range of the number of distinct permutations.
title A Lower Bound on the Expected Number of Distinct Patterns in a Random Permutation
topic Combinatorics
Probability
05A05
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.13194