English

Proof of the Andrews-El Bachraoui positivity conjecture

Combinatorics 2026-01-28 v1 Number Theory

Abstract

We prove that for k1k\ge 1, all coefficients in the expansion of the series n0(q2n+2,q2n+2k;q2)(q2n+1;q2)2q2n\sum_{n\ge 0} \frac{(q^{2n+2}, q^{2n+2k}; q^2)_\infty}{(q^{2n+1};q^2)_\infty^2} q^{2n} are positive, by qq-hypergeometric means. This confirms a recent conjecture of Andrews and El Bachraoui.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.19845,
  title  = {Proof of the Andrews-El Bachraoui positivity conjecture},
  author = {Shane Chern and Chun Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.19845},
  year   = {2026}
}