Testability of relations between permutations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a framework for testing whether tuples of permutations satisfy certain relations using few queries, connecting graph expansion properties and group theory to determine testability.

Contribution

It develops criteria for testability of permutation relations via graph expansion, unifies stability and testability concepts, and surveys related computational results.

Findings

Graph-based criteria for testability and non-testability.

Deep connection between permutation relations and graph expansion.

Reformulation of permutation stability as a testability problem.

Abstract

We initiate the study of property testing problems concerning relations between permutations. In such problems, the input is a tuple $(\sigma_1,\dotsc,\sigma_d)$ of permutations on $\{1,\dotsc,n\}$, and one wishes to determine whether this tuple satisfies a certain system of relations $E$, or is far from every tuple that satisfies $E$. If this computational problem can be solved by querying only a small number of entries of the given permutations, we say that $E$ is testable. For example, when $d=2$ and $E$ consists of the single relation $\mathsf{XY=YX}$, this corresponds to testing whether $\sigma_1\sigma_2=\sigma_2\sigma_1$, where $\sigma_1\sigma_2$ and $\sigma_2\sigma_1$ denote composition of permutations. We define a collection of graphs, naturally associated with the system $E$, that encodes all the information relevant to the testability of $E$. We then prove two theorems that provide criteria for testability and non-testability in terms of expansion properties of these graphs. By virtue of a deep connection with group theory, both theorems are applicable to wide classes of systems of relations. In addition, we formulate the well-studied group-theoretic notion of stability in permutations as a special case of the testability notion above, interpret all previous works on stability as testability results, survey previous results on stability from a computational perspective, and describe many directions for future research on stability and testability.