Quasirandom permutations are characterized by 4-point densities

For permutations π and τ of lengths |π|≤|τ| , let t(π,τ) be the probability that the restriction of τ to a random |π| -point set is (order) isomorphic to π . We show that every sequence {τj} of permutations such that |τj|→∞ and t(π,τj)→1/4! for every 4-point permutation π is quasirandom (that is, t(π,τj)→1/|π|! for every π ). This answers a question posed by Graham

Limits of permutation sequences

A permutation sequence is said to be convergent if the density of occurrences of every fixed permutation in the elements of the sequence converges. We prove that such a convergent sequence has a natural limit object, namely a Lebesgue measurable function $Z:[0,1]^2 \to [0,1]$ with the additional properties that, for every fixed $x \in [0,1]$, the restriction $Z(x,\cdot)$ is a cumulative distribution function and, for every $y \in [0,1]$, the restriction $Z(\cdot,y)$ satisfies a "mass" condition. This limit process is well-behaved: every function in the class of limit objects is a limit of some permutation sequence, and two of these functions are limits of the same sequence if and only if they are equal almost everywhere. An ingredient in the proofs is a new model of random permutations, which generalizes previous models and might be interesting for its own sake.Comment: accepted for publication in the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1106.166