Expected length of the longest common subsequence for large alphabets

We consider the length L of the longest common subsequence of two randomly uniformly and independently chosen n character words over a k-ary alphabet. Subadditivity arguments yield that the expected value of L, when normalized by n, converges to a constant C_k. We prove a conjecture of Sankoff and Mainville from the early 80's claiming that C_k\sqrt{k} goes to 2 as k goes to infinity.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, LaTe

Algebraic aspects of increasing subsequences

We present a number of results relating partial Cauchy-Littlewood sums, integrals over the compact classical groups, and increasing subsequences of permutations. These include: integral formulae for the distribution of the longest increasing subsequence of a random involution with constrained number of fixed points; new formulae for partial Cauchy-Littlewood sums, as well as new proofs of old formulae; relations of these expressions to orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle; and explicit bases for invariant spaces of the classical groups, together with appropriate generalizations of the straightening algorithm.Comment: LaTeX+amsmath+eepic; 52 pages. Expanded introduction, new references, other minor change

Bethe Ansatz in the Bernoulli Matching Model of Random Sequence Alignment

For the Bernoulli Matching model of sequence alignment problem we apply the Bethe ansatz technique via an exact mapping to the 5--vertex model on a square lattice. Considering the terrace--like representation of the sequence alignment problem, we reproduce by the Bethe ansatz the results for the averaged length of the Longest Common Subsequence in Bernoulli approximation. In addition, we compute the average number of nucleation centers of the terraces.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures (some points are clarified