English

Legendre-signed partition numbers

Number Theory 2024-12-06 v2

Abstract

Let f:N{0,±1}f:\mathbb{N}\to\{0,\pm 1\}, for nNn \in \mathbb{N} let Π[n]\Pi[n] be the set of partitions of nn, and for all partitions π=(a1,a2,,ak)Π[n]\pi = (a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_k) \in \Pi[n] let f(π):=f(a1)f(a2)f(ak). f(\pi) := f(a_1)f(a_2) \cdots f(a_k). With this we define the ff-signed partition numbers p(n,f)=πΠ[n]f(π). \mathfrak{p}(n,f) = \sum_{\pi\in\Pi[n]} f(\pi). In this paper, for odd primes pp we derive asymptotic formulae for p(n,χp)\mathfrak{p}(n,\chi_p) as nn\to\infty, where χp(n)\chi_p(n) is the Legendre symbol (np)(\frac{n}{p}) associated pp. A similar asymptotic formula for p(n,χ2)\mathfrak{p}(n,\chi_2) is also established, where χ2(n)\chi_2(n) is the Kronecker symbol (n2)(\frac{n}{2}). Special attention is paid to the sequence (p(n,χ5))N(\mathfrak{p}(n,\chi_5))_\mathbb{N}, and a formula for p(n,χ5)\mathfrak{p}(n,\chi_5) supporting the recent discovery that p(10j+2,χ5)=0\mathfrak{p}(10j+2,\chi_5)=0 for all j0j\geq 0 is discussed. Our main results imply, as a corollary, that the periodic vanishing displayed by (p(n,χ5))N(\mathfrak{p}(n,\chi_5))_\mathbb{N} does not occur in any sequence (p(n,χp))N(\mathfrak{p}(n,\chi_p))_\mathbb{N} for p5p \neq 5 such that p≢1(mod8)p\not\equiv 1\,\,(\mathrm{mod}\,8). In addition, work of Montgomery and Vaughan on exponential sums with multiplicative coefficients is applied to establish an upper bound on certain doubly infinite series involving multiplicative functions ff with f1|f| \leq 1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.12466,
  title  = {Legendre-signed partition numbers},
  author = {Taylor Daniels},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.12466},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

Updated version with changes made during publication. 39 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:53:40.527Z