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Chords in a circle and linear algebra over GF(2). (English) Zbl 0552.05001

M. Cohn and A. Lempel [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 13, 83-89 (1972; Zbl 0314.05005)] showed that if \(\tau \in S_ n\) is an n-cycle and \(\sigma \in S_ n\) is a product of disjoint transpositions, then the number of orbits of \(\sigma\) \(\tau\) is one more than the nullity of a certain matrix over GF(2), obtained as an incidence matrix for carefully chosen chords of a circle. Here, a new proof is given, based on the study of a certain boolean measure on the boolean algebra of subsets of the circle.
Reviewer: W.H.Gustafson

MSC:

05A05 Permutations, words, matrices
20B30 Symmetric groups
15B33 Matrices over special rings (quaternions, finite fields, etc.)

Citations:

Zbl 0314.05005
Full Text: DOI

References:

[1] Beck, I., Cycle decomposition by transpositions, J. Combin. Theory Ser. A, 23, 198-207 (1977) · Zbl 0406.05003
[2] I. Beck and G. Moran; I. Beck and G. Moran · Zbl 0607.20002
[3] Cohn, M.; Lempel, A., Cycle decomposition by disjoint transpositions, J. Combin. Theory Ser. A, 13, 83-89 (1972) · Zbl 0314.05005
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