English

The large-parts formula for p(n)

Combinatorics 2010-02-09 v1

Abstract

A new formula for the partition function p(n)p(n) is developed. We show that the number of partitions of nn can be expressed as the sum of a simple function of the two largest parts of all partitions. Specifically, if a1+>...+ak=na_1 + >... + a_k = n is a partition of nn with a1...aka_1 \leq ... \leq a_k and a0=0a_0 = 0, then the sum of (ak+ak1)/(ak1+1)\lfloor(a_k + a_{k-1}) / (a_{k-1} + 1)\rfloor over all partitions of nn is equal to 2p(n)12p(n) - 1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1002.1458,
  title  = {The large-parts formula for p(n)},
  author = {Jerome Kelleher},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1002.1458},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

Four pages; 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-21T14:44:17.122Z