Probability Distributions Related to Random Mappings

Abstract

A Random Mapping Space $(X,\mathcal{J},P)$ is a triplet, where $X$ is a finite set of elements $x$ of cardinality $n,\mathcal{J}$ is a set of transformations $T$ of $X$ into $X$, and $P$ is a probability measure over $\mathcal{J}$. In this paper, four choices of $\mathcal{J}$ are considered (I) $\mathcal{J}$ is the set of all transformations of $X$ into $X$. (II) $\mathcal{J}$ is the set of all transformations of $X$ into $X$ such that for each $x\epsilon XTx\ne x$. (III) $\mathcal{J}$ is the set of one-to-one mappings of $X$ onto $X$. (IV) $\mathcal{J}$ is the set of one-to-one mappings of $X$ onto $X$, such that for each $x\epsilon X,Tx\ne x$. In each case $P$ is taken as the uniform probability distribution over $\mathcal{J}$. If $x\epsilon X$ and $T\epsilon \mathcal{J}$, we will define $T^{k}x$ as the $k$th iteration of $T$ on $x$, where $k$ is an integer, i.e. $T^{k}x=T(T^{k-1}x)$, and $T^{0}x=x$ for all $x$. The reader should note that, in general, $T^{k}x,k<0$, may not exist or may not be uniquely determined. If for some $k\geqq 0,T^{k}x=y$, then $y$ is said to be a $k$th image of $x$ in $T$. The set of successors of $x$ in $T,S_T(x)$ is the set of all images of $x$ in $T$, i.e., $S_T(x)=\{x,Tx,T^{2}x,\cdots ,T^{n-1}x\},$ which need not be all distinct elements. If for some $k\leqq 0,T^{k}x=y,y$ is said to be a $k$th inverse of $x$ in $T$. The set of all $k$th inverses of $x$ in $T$ is $T^{(k)}(x)$ and $P_T(x)={\bigcup }_{k=-n}^0{T}^{(k)}(x)$ is the set of predecessors of $x$ in $T$. If there exists an $m>0$, such that $T^{m}x=x$, then $x$ is a cyclical element of $T$ and the set of elements $x,Tx,T^{2}x,\cdots ,T^{m-1}x$ is the cycle containing $x,C_T(x)$. If $m$ is the smallest positive integer for which $T^{m}x=x$, then $C_T(x)$ has cardinality $m$. We note further an interesting equivalence relation induced by $T$. If there exists a pair of integers $k_1,k_2$ such that $T^{k_1}x=T^{k_2}y,$ then $x\sim y$ under $T$. It is readily seen that this is in fact an equivalence, and hence decomposes $X$ into equivalence classes, which we shall call the components of $X$ in $T$; and designate by $K_T(x)$ the component containing $x$. We define $s_T(x)$ to be the number of elements in $S_T(x),p_T(x)$ to be the number of elements in $P_T(x)$, and $l_T(x)$ to be the number of elements in the cycle contained in $K_T(x)$ (i.e. $l(x)=$ the number of elements in $$ if $$ is cyclical). We designate by $$ the number of elements of $$ cyclical in $$, and by $$ the number of components of $$ in $$. Rubin and Sitgreaves [9] in a Stanford Technical Report have obtained the distributions of $$ and have given a generating function for the distribution of $$ in case I. Folkert [3], in an unpublished doctoral dissertation has obtained the distribution of $$ in cases I and II. The distribution of $$ in case III is classical and may be found in Feller [2], Gontcharoff [4], and Riordan [8]. In the present paper, a number of these earlier results are rederived and extended. Specifically, for cases I and II, we compute the probability distributions of $$ and $$. In cases III and IV the distributions of $$ and $$ are given. In addition some asymptotic distributions and low order moments are obtained. For the convenience of the reader, an index of notations having a fixed meaning is provided in the appendix to the paper.