English

Distribution properties for t-hooks in partitions

Number Theory 2022-04-19 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

Partitions, the partition function p(n)p(n), and the hook lengths of their Ferrers-Young diagrams are important objects in combinatorics, number theory and representation theory. For positive integers nn and tt, we study pte(n)p_t^e(n) (resp. pto(n)p_t^o(n)), the number of partitions of nn with an even (resp. odd) number of tt-hooks. We study the limiting behavior of the ratio pte(n)/p(n)p_t^e(n)/p(n), which also gives pto(n)/p(n)p_t^o(n)/p(n) since pte(n)+pt0(n)=p(n)p_t^e(n) + p_t^0(n) = p(n). For even tt, we show that limnpte(n)p(n)=12,\lim\limits_{n \to \infty} \dfrac{p_t^e(n)}{p(n)} = \dfrac{1}{2}, and for odd tt we establish the non-uniform distribution limnpte(n)p(n)={12+12(t+1)/2if 2n,1212(t+1)/2otherwise.\lim\limits_{n \to \infty} \dfrac{p^e_t(n)}{p(n)} = \begin{cases} \dfrac{1}{2} + \dfrac{1}{2^{(t+1)/2}} & \text{if } 2 \mid n, \\ \\ \dfrac{1}{2} - \dfrac{1}{2^{(t+1)/2}} & \text{otherwise.} \end{cases} Using the Rademacher circle method, we find an exact formula for pte(n)p_t^e(n) and pto(n)p_t^o(n), and this exact formula yields these distribution properties for large nn. We also show that for sufficiently large nn, the signs of pte(n)pto(n)p_t^e(n) - p_t^o(n) are periodic.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2006.13446,
  title  = {Distribution properties for t-hooks in partitions},
  author = {William Craig and Anna Pun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.13446},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T16:34:36.805Z