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Limiting chance a random permutation fixes five points

Question

Let FnF_n denote the number of fixed points of a permutation of {1,…,n}\{1,\dots,n\} chosen uniformly at random. The limit of P(Fn=5)\mathbb{P}(F_n=5) as n→∞n\to\infty equals c/ec/e. Find cc.

Short answer

c=1120c=\tfrac1{120}. The number of fixed points of a uniform random permutation converges in distribution to Poisson(1)\text{Poisson}(1). Inclusion–exclusion gives this exactly: P(Fn=k)=1k!∑j=0n−k(−1)jj!→e−1k!\mathbb{P}(F_n=k)=\tfrac1{k!}\sum_{j=0}^{n-k}\tfrac{(-1)^j}{j!}\to\tfrac{e^{-1}}{k!}, so the limit is 1120e\tfrac{1}{120e}.

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