A central limit theorem for a new statistic on permutations

Abstract

This paper does three things: It proves a central limit theorem for novel permutation statistics (for example, the number of descents plus the number of descents in the inverse). It provides a clear illustration of a new approach to proving central limit theorems more generally. It gives us an opportunity to acknowledge the work of our teacher and friend B. V. Rao.

10 pages. To appear in a special issue of the Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics in honor of Professor B. V. Rao