5 Day Workshop at BIRS — Permutations and Probability

A permutation is an ordering or arrangement of a set of objects. One might think of shuffling a pack of cards, or sorting a list of options into order of preference, or arranging the seating of passengers on an aeroplane or guests at a dinner. Permutations are central objects in many areas of mathematics. This workshop will explore aspects of permutations which arise in probability theory and related fields. This is a highly active area of study, with a variety of striking results in the last few years and many challenging problems outstanding. Random permutations have applications ranging from genetics to comupter science to economics, and arise in many challenging questions throughout mathematics. Many interesting random processes can be thought of as permutations evolving over time. The workshop will bring together researchers from many backgrounds including probability, combinatorics, physics and theoretical computer science, with the goal of advancing our understanding of random permutations and permutation processes, and of sharing ideas from across the many disparate fields where they are studied.