A Note on the Number of Permutations whose Cycle Lengths Are Prime Numbers

Abstract

Let $A$ be a set of natural numbers and let $S_{n,A}$ be the set of all permutations of $[n]=\{1,2,...,n\}$ with cycle lengths belonging to $A$. For $A(n)=A\cap [n]$, the limit $\rho=\lim_{n\to\infty}\mid A(n)\mid/n$ (if it esists) is usually called the density of set $A$. (Here $\mid B\mid$ stands for the cardinality of the set $B$.) Several studies show that the asymptotic behavior of the cardinality $\mid S_{n,A}\mid$, as $n\to\infty$, depends on the density $\rho$. It turns out that the asumption $\rho>0$ plays an essential role in the asymptotic analysis of $\mid S_{n,A}\mid$. Kolchin (1999) noticed that there is a lack of studies on classes of permutations satisfying $\rho=0$ and proposed investigations on certain particular cases. In this note, we consider the permutations whose cycle lengths are prime numbers, that is, we assume that $A=\mathcal{P}$, where $\mathcal{P}$ denotes the set of all primes. From the Prime Number Theorem it follows that $\rho=0$ for this class of permutations. We deduce an asymptotic formula for the summatory function $\sum_{k\le n}\mid S_{k,\mathcal{P}}\mid/k!$ as $n\to\infty$. In our proof we employ the classical Hardy-Littlewood-Karamata Tauberian theorem.