Affine shuffles, shuffles with cuts, the Whitehouse module, and patience sorting (Q1585306)

Type A affine shuffles and riffle shuffles followed by a cut are defined by introducing different probability measures on the symmetric group \(S_n\). The author compares these two ways of shuffling showing first that both satisfy a convolution property and that the induced measures on conjugacy classes of \(S_n\) coincide whenever the parameter \(q\), counting the number of piles in a shuffle, satisfies \(\text{gcd} (n,q-1)=1\). Then, using representation theoretic work on the \ Whitehouse module, he obtains a formula for the cyclic structure of a riffle shuffle followed by a cut. It is also proved that the use of cuts does not speed up the convergence rate of riffle shuffles to randomness. Generating functions for the first pile size in patience sorting from decks with repeated values are derived. The author outlines directions to further studies based on the fact that the number of piles in such games relates to properties of eigenvalues of random symplectic and orthogonal matrices.