Abstract
In 1944 Dyson defined the rank of a partition as the largest part minus the number of parts, and conjectured that the residue of the rank mod 5 divides the partitions of \(5n+4\) into five classes of equal size. This gave a combinatorial explanation of Ramanujan’s famous partition congruence mod 5. He made an analogous conjecture for the rank mod 7 and the partitions of \(7n+5\). In 1954 Atkin and Swinnerton-Dyer proved Dyson’s rank conjectures by constructing several Lambert-series identities basically using the theory of elliptic functions. In 2016 the author gave another proof using the theory of weak harmonic Maass forms. In this paper we describe a new and more elementary approach using Hecke–Rogers series.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data sharing not applicable to this article as the research of this paper does not involve the use of any datasets.
References
Andrews, G.E.: Applications of basic hypergeometric functions. SIAM Rev. 16, 441–484 (1974)
Andrews, G.E.: Hecke modular forms and the Kac–Peterson identities. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 283(2), 451–458 (1984)
Andrews, G.E.: The fifth and seventh order mock theta functions. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 293(1), 113–134 (1986)
Andrews, G.E., Berndt, B.C.: Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook. Part III. Springer, New York (2012)
Andrews, G.E.: The Theory of Partitions, Cambridge Mathematical Library, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998, Reprint of the 1976 original
Andrews, G.E., Garvan, F.G.: Dyson’s crank of a partition. Bull. Am. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 18(2), 167–171 (1988)
Atkin, A.O.L., Swinnerton-Dyer, P.: Some properties of partitions. Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 3(4), 84–406 (1954)
Berkovich, A., Garvan, F.G.: Some observations on Dyson’s new symmetries of partitions. J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 100(1), 61–93 (2002)
Bradley-Thrush, J.G.: Properties of the Appell-Lerch function (I). Ramanujan J. 57(1), 291–367 (2022)
Chen, R., and Garvan, F.: A proof of the mod \(4\) unimodal sequence conjectures and related mock theta functions, arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.14315 (2020)
Dyson, F.J.: Some guesses in the theory of partitions. Eureka 8, 10–15 (1944)
Garvan, F.G.: Universal mock theta functions and two-variable Hecke–Rogers identities. Ramanujan J. 36(1), 267–296 (2015)
Garvan, F.G.: Transformation properties for Dyson’s rank function. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 371(1), 199–248 (2019)
Garvan, F.G.: New combinatorial interpretations of Ramanujan’s partition congruences mod \(5,7\) and \(11\),. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 305(1), 47–77 (1988)
Hecke, E.: Über einen neuen Zusammenhang zwischen elliptischen Modulfunktionen und indefiniten quadratischen Formen. Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen, Math.-Phys. Kl. 1925 (1925), 35–44 (German)
Hickerson, D.R., Mortenson, E.T.: Hecke-type double sums, Appell–Lerch sums, and mock theta functions, I. Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 109(2), 382–422 (2014)
Hickerson, D., Mortenson, E.: Dyson’s ranks and Appell–Lerch sums. Math. Ann. 367(1–2), 373–395 (2017)
Jennings-Shaffer, C.: Exotic Bailey–Slater spt-functions I: group. Adv. Math. 305, 479–514 (2017)
Kac, V.G., Peterson, D.H.: Affine Lie algebras and Hecke modular forms. Bull. Am. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 3(3), 1057–1061 (1980)
Lovejoy, J.: Rank and conjugation for the Frobenius representation of an overpartition. Ann. Comb. 9(3), 321–334 (2005)
Ramanujan, S.: The lost notebook and other unpublished papers. Springer, Berlin; Narosa Publishing House, New Delhi, 1988, With an introduction by George E. Andrews
Rogers, L.J.: Second memoir on the expansion of certain infinite products. Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 25, 318–343 (1893/1894)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Dedicated to the memory of Richard Askey, a great friend and mentor.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
The author was supported in part by a grant from the Simon’s Foundation (#318714). A preliminary version of this paper was presented October 1, 2020 at the Number Theory Seminar, St. Petersburg State University and Euler International Mathematical Institute, Russia. It was also presented October 3, 2020 at the Special Session on q-Series and Related Areas in Combinatorics and Number Theory, A.M.S. Fall Eastern Sectional Meeting.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Garvan, F.G. A new approach to the Dyson rank conjectures. Ramanujan J 61, 545–566 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11139-021-00530-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11139-021-00530-8