Limit distributions for cycles of random parking functions

Abstract

We study the asymptotic behavior of cycles of uniformly random parking functions. Our results are multifold: we obtain an explicit formula for the number of parking functions with a prescribed number of cyclic points and show that the scaled number of cyclic points of a random parking function is asymptotically Rayleigh distributed; we establish the classical trio of limit theorems (law of large numbers, central limit theorem, large deviation principle) for the number of cycles in a random parking function; we also compute the asymptotic mean of the length of the $r$th longest cycle in a random parking function for all valid $r$. A variety of tools from probability theory and combinatorics are used in our investigation. Corresponding results for the class of prime parking functions are obtained.