Problem #WSP-000415

Problems Probability and statistics

Problem

Take a (finite) set \(S\), say \([n]\) and a random function \(f:S\to S\). What’s the distribution of the limiting size of the image of the iterates of \(f\)?

That is, \(\lim_{N\to\infty}|f^N([n])|\)

By random, let \(i\in[n]\). Each \(f(i)\) is independently and identically distributed as uniform random variables on \([n]\). One can also think of it as \(f\) is taken uniformly from the \(n^n\) possible functions \([n]\to[n]\).