Intersecting families of permutations

Ellis, David; Friedgut, Ehud; Pilpel, Haran

doi:10.1090/S0894-0347-2011-00690-5

Intersecting families of permutations
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by David Ellis, Ehud Friedgut and Haran Pilpel;

J. Amer. Math. Soc. 24 (2011), 649-682

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1090/S0894-0347-2011-00690-5

Published electronically: January 31, 2011

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Abstract:

A set of permutations $I \subset S_n$ is said to be $k$-intersecting if any two permutations in $I$ agree on at least $k$ points. We show that for any $k \in \mathbb {N}$, if $n$ is sufficiently large depending on $k$, then the largest $k$-intersecting subsets of $S_n$ are cosets of stabilizers of $k$ points, proving a conjecture of Deza and Frankl. We also prove a similar result concerning $k$-cross-intersecting subsets. Our proofs are based on eigenvalue techniques and the representation theory of the symmetric group.

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