English

Remarks on MacMahon's $q$-series

Combinatorics 2024-05-20 v2

Abstract

In his important 1920 paper on partitions, MacMahon defined the partition generating functions \begin{align*} A_k(q)=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\mathfrak{m}(k;n)q^n&:=\sum_{0< s_1<s_2<\cdots<s_k} \frac{q^{s_1+s_2+\cdots+s_k}}{(1-q^{s_1})^2(1-q^{s_2})^2\cdots(1-q^{s_k})^2},\\ C_k(q)=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \mathfrak{m}_{odd}(k;n)q^n&:=\sum_{0< s_1<s_2<\cdots<s_k} \frac{q^{2s_1+2s_2+\cdots+2s_k-k}}{(1-q^{2s_1-1})^2(1-q^{2s_2-1})^2\cdots(1-q^{2s_k-1})^2}. \end{align*} These series give infinitely many formulas for two prominent generating functions. For each non-negative kk, we prove that Ak(q),Ak+1(q),Ak+2(q),A_k(q), A_{k+1}(q), A_{k+2}(q),\dots (resp. Ck(q),Ck+1(q),Ck+2(q),C_k(q), C_{k+1}(q), C_{k+2}(q),\dots) give the generating function for the 3-colored partition function p3(n)p_3(n) (resp. the overpartition function p(n)\overline{p}(n)).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.08783,
  title  = {Remarks on MacMahon's $q$-series},
  author = {Ken Ono and Ajit Singh},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.08783},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

Minor revisions based on two referee report

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:47:51.411Z