English

A central limit theorem for partitions involving generalised divisor functions

Number Theory 2026-01-21 v2

Abstract

We define an ff-restricted partition pf(n,k)p_f(n,k) of fixed length kk given by the bivariate generating series \begin{align*} Q_f(z,u) \coloneqq 1+\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\sum_{k=1}^{\infty} p_f(n,k) u^kz^n =\prod_{k=1}^{\infty}(1+uz^k)^{\Delta_f(k)}, \end{align*} where Δf(n)=f(n+1)f(n)\Delta_f(n)=f(n+1)-f(n). In this article, we establish a central limit theorem for the number of summands in such partitions when f(n)=σr(n)f(n)=\sigma_r(n) denotes the generalised divisor function, defined as σr(n)=dndr\sigma_r(n)=\sum_{d|n}d^r for integer r2r\geq 2. This can be considered as a generalisation of the work of Lipnik, Madritsch, and Tichy, who previously studied this problem for f(n)=nαf(n)=\lfloor{n}^{\alpha}\rfloor with 0<α<10<\alpha<1. A key element of our proof relies on the analytic behaviour of the Dirichlet series \begin{align*} \sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{\sigma_r(n+1)}{n^s}, \end{align*} for Re(s)>1\mathrm{Re}(s)>1. We study this problem employing the identity involving the Ramanujan sum. Furthermore, we analyse the Euler product arising from the above Dirichlet series by adopting the argument of Alkan, Ledoan and Zaharescu.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.19740,
  title  = {A central limit theorem for partitions involving generalised divisor functions},
  author = {Madhuparna Das and Nicolas Robles},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.19740},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:00:05.788Z