Combinatorics and distributions of partial injections

Abstract

We obtain several combinatorial results about chains, cycles and orbits of the elements of the symmetric inverse semigroup $\IS_n$ and the set $T_n$ of nilpotent elements in $\IS_n$. We also get some estimates for the growth of $|\IS_n|$ and $|T_n|$, and study random products of elements from $\IS_n$.