Stable characters from permutation patterns

Abstract: For a fixed permutation $\sigma \in S_k$, let $N_{\sigma}$ denote the function which counts occurrences of $\sigma$ as a pattern in permutations from $S_n$. We study the expected value (and $d$-th moments) of $N_{\sigma}$ on conjugacy classes of $S_n$ and prove that the irreducible character support of these class functions stabilizes as $n$ grows. This says that there is a single polynomial in the variables $n, m_1, \ldots, m_{dk}$ which computes these moments on any conjugacy class (of cycle type $1^{m_1}2^{m_2}\cdots$) of any symmetric group. This result generalizes results of Hultman and of Gill, who proved the cases $(d,k)=(1,2)$ and $(1,3)$ using ad hoc methods. Our proof is, to our knowledge, the first application of partition algebras to the study of permutation patterns.