On sorting by 3-bounded transpositions

AbstractHeath and Vergara [Sorting by short block moves, Algorithmica 28 (2000) 323–352] proved the equivalence between sorting by 3-bounded transpositions and sorting by correcting skips and correcting hops. This paper explores various algorithmic as well as combinatorial aspects of correcting skips/hops, with the aim of understanding 3-bounded transpositions better.We show that to sort any permutation via correcting hops and skips, ⌊n/2⌋ correcting skips suffice. We also present a tighter analysis of the 43 approximation algorithm of Heath and Vergara, and a possible simplification. Along the way, we study the class Hn of those permutations of Sn which can be sorted using correcting hops alone, and characterize large subsets of this class. We obtain a combinatorial characterization of the set Gn⊆Sn of all correcting-hop-free permutations, and describe a linear-time algorithm to optimally sort such permutations. We also show how to efficiently sort a permutation with a minimum number of correcting moves