English

On the density of the odd values of the partition function, II: An infinite conjectural framework

Combinatorics 2018-03-28 v2 Commutative Algebra Number Theory

Abstract

We continue our study of a basic but seemingly intractable problem in integer partition theory, namely the conjecture that p(n)p(n) is odd exactly 50%50\% of the time. Here, we greatly extend on our previous paper by providing a doubly-indexed, infinite framework of conjectural identities modulo 2, and show how to, in principle, prove each such identity. However, our conjecture remains open in full generality. A striking consequence is that, under suitable existence conditions, if any tt-multipartition function is odd with positive density and t≢0t\not \equiv 0 (mod 3), then p(n)p(n) is also odd with positive density. These are all facts that appear virtually impossible to show unconditionally today. Our arguments employ a combination of algebraic and analytic methods, including certain technical tools recently developed by Radu in his study of the parity of the Fourier coefficients of modular forms.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.10134,
  title  = {On the density of the odd values of the partition function, II: An infinite conjectural framework},
  author = {Samuel D. Judge and Fabrizio Zanello},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.10134},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

14 pages. To appear in the J. of Number Theory