Low-degree Boolean functions on $S_n$, with an application to isoperimetry

Abstract

We prove that Boolean functions on $S_n$, whose Fourier transform is highly concentrated on irreducible representations indexed by partitions of $n$ whose largest part has size at least $n-t$, are close to being unions of cosets of stabilizers of $t$-tuples. We also obtain an edge-isoperimetric inequality for the transposition graph on $S_n$ which is asymptotically sharp for subsets of $S_n$ of size $n!/\textrm{poly}(n)$, using eigenvalue techniques. We then combine these two results to obtain a sharp edge-isoperimetric inequality for subsets of $S_n$ of size $(n-t)!$, where $n$ is large compared to $t$, confirming a conjecture of Ben Efraim in these cases.