English

Unexpected Biases between Congruence Classes for Parts in k-indivisible Partitions

Combinatorics 2025-09-30 v1 Number Theory

Abstract

For integers k,t2k,t \geq 2, and 1rt1\leq r \leq t let Dk×(r,t;n)D_k^\times(r,t;n) be the number of parts among all kk-indivisible partitions of nn (i.e., partitions where all parts are not divisible by kk) of nn that are congruent to rr modulo tt. Using Wright's circle method, we derive an asymptotic for Dk×(r,t;n)D_k^\times(r,t;n) as nn \to \infty when k,tk,t are coprime. The main term of this asymptotic does not depend on rr, and so, in a weak asymptotic sense, the parts are equidistributed among congruence classes. However, inspection of the lower order terms indicates a bias towards different congruence classes modulo tt. This induces an ordering on the congruence classes modulo tt, which we call the kk-indivisible ordering. We prove that for k6(t21)π2k \geq \frac{6(t^2-1)}{\pi^2} the kk-indivisible ordering matches the natural ordering. We also explore the properties of these orderings when k<6(t21)π2k < \frac{6(t^2-1)}{\pi^2}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2207.06365,
  title  = {Unexpected Biases between Congruence Classes for Parts in k-indivisible Partitions},
  author = {Faye Jackson and Misheel Otgonbayar},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.06365},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

26 pages, 3 figures