Séminaire Lotharingien de Combinatoire, 95B.29 (2026), 12 pp.

Sarah Brauner, Patricia Commins, Darij Grinberg and Franco Saliola

The q-Deformed Random-to-Random Family in the Hecke Algebra

Abstract. We generalize Reiner-Saliola-Welker's well-known but mysterious family of k-random-to-random shuffles from Markov chains on symmetric groups to Markov chains on the Type-A Iwahori-Hecke algebras. We prove that the family of operators pairwise commutes and has eigenvalues that are polynomials in q with non-negative integer coefficients. Our work generalizes work of Reiner-Saliola-Welker and Lafrenière for the symmetric group, and simplifies all known proofs in this case.


Received: November 15, 2025. Accepted: February 15, 2026. Final version: April 1, 2026.

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