Poisson approximation for large permutation groups

Abstract

Let $G_{k,n}$ be a group of permutations of $kn$ objects which permutes things independently in disjoint blocks of size $k$ and then permutes the blocks. We investigate the probabilistic and/or enumerative aspects of random elements of $G_{k,n}$. This includes novel limit theorems for fixed points, cycles of various lengths, number of cycles and inversions. The limits are compound Poisson distributions with interesting dependence structure.