Counting Parabolic Double Cosets in Symmetric Groups

Abstract: Billey, Konvalinka, Petersen, Solfstra, and Tenner recently presented a method for counting parabolic double cosets in Coxeter groups, and used it to compute $p_n$, the number of parabolic double cosets in $S_n$, for $n\leq13$. In this paper, we derive a new formula for $p_n$ and an efficient polynomial time algorithm for evaluating this formula. We use these results to compute $p_n$ for $n\leq5000$ and to prove an asymptotic formula for $p_n$ that was conjectured by Billey et al.