Combinatorial results for the symmetric inverse semigroup. (Q2460069)

The main combinatorial object of this paper is \(f(n,r,k)\), which denotes the number of partial one-to-one mappings on \(X_n=\{1,2,\dots,n\}\) with domain and range of size \(r\) and having exactly \(k\) fixed points. A formula is found for \(f(n,r,k)\) as a certain weighted alternating sum of binomial coefficients. This is similar to and indeed represents a generalization of Euler's hat problem, for \(f(n,r,k)\) counts the number of ways that \(r\) of \(n\) people may leave a restaurant with precisely \(k\) picking their own hat. Some combinatorial facts are established, some of which are perhaps new, along with the corresponding asymptotic probabilistic results.