Representation theory and cycle statistics for random walks on the symmetric group

Abstract

We use representation theory of $S_n$ to analyze the mixing of cycle type statistics $a_j(σ) = \{\text{# of $j$-cycles of $σ$}\}$ for any fixed $j$ in permutations $σ_t$ resulting from the $t$-step random transposition walk on $S_n$. We also derive analogous results for the star transposition walk. Our approach uses the method of moments; a key ingredient is a new formula for the coefficients in the irreducible character decomposition of the $S_n$-class function $(a_j)^r(σ)=\{(\text{# of $j$-cycles of $σ$})^r\}$ for any positive integers $r,j$ when $n\geq 2rj$.