On the number of cycles of given length of a free word in several random permutations

Let w ≠ 1 be a free word in the symbols g₁,…, g_k and their inverses (i.e., an element of the free group F_k). For any s₁,…, s_k, in the group s_n of all permutation of n objects, we denote by w(s₁,…,s_k) ? S_n the permutation obtained by replacing g₁,…, g_k with s₁,…, s_k in the expression of w. Let X (s₁,…, s_k) denote the number of cycles of length L of w(s₁,…, s_k). For fixed w and L, we show that X, viewed as a random variable on S_n^k, has (for n →∞) a Poisson-type limit distribution, which can be computed precisely. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.