Minimal factorizations of permutations into star transpositions (Q1024452)

The authors show that the number of decompositions of a permutation \(\pi\in\mathfrak{S}_n\) into a minimal number of transpositions \((1,i)\) with \(i\in\{2,\ldots,n\}\) is equal to \[ \frac{(n+m-2)!}{n!}\,\ell_1\cdots\ell_m \] where \(\ell_1,\ldots,\ell_m\) denote the cycle lengths of \(\pi\).