11 pages; v2, small correction to proof of Theorem 7; v3, clean up some explanations, acknowledge recent results from Xinhua Xiong on overpartitions mod 16; v4, final journal version to appear International Journal of Number Theory (Feb. 2017)
We study $ν_k(n)$, the number of partitions of $n$ into $k$ part sizes, and find numerous arithmetic progressions where $ν_2$ and $ν_3$ take on values divisible by 2 and 4. Expanding earlier work, we show $ν_2(An+B) \equiv 0 \pmod{4}$ for (A,B) = (36,30), (72,42), (252,114), (196,70), and likely many other progressions for which our method should easily generalize. Of some independent interest, we prove that the overpartition function $\bar{p}(n) \equiv 0 \pmod{16}$ in the first three progressions (the fourth is known), and thereby show that $ν_3(An+B) \equiv 0 \pmod{2}$ in each of these progressions as well, and discuss the relationship between these congruences in more generality. We end with open questions in this area.
In this paper we prove that Amdeberhan's conjecture on the largest size of $(t, t+1, t+2)$-core partitions is true. We also show that the number of $(t, t + 1, t + 2)$-core partitions with the largest size is $1$ or $2$ based on the parity of $t$. More generally, the largest size of $(t,t+1,..., t+p)$-core partitions and the number of such partitions with the largest size are determined.
Motivated by Amdeberhan's conjecture on $(t,t+1)$-core partitions with distinct parts, various results on the numbers, the largest sizes and the average sizes of simultaneous core partitions with distinct parts were obtained by many mathematicians recently. In this paper, we derive the largest sizes of $(t,mt\pm 1)$-core partitions with distinct parts, which verifies a generalization of Amdeberhan's conjecture. We also prove that the numbers of such partitions with the largest sizes are at most $2$.
We give an asymptotic estimate for the number of partitions of a set of $n$ elements, whose block sizes avoid a given set $\mathcal{S}$ of natural numbers. As an application, we derive an estimate for the number of partitions of a set with $n$ elements, which have the property that its blocks can be combined to form subsets of any size between $1$ and $n$.
There is a well-studied correspondence by Jaclyn Anderson between partitions that avoid hooks of length s or t and certain binary strings of length s+t. Using this map, we prove that the total size of a random partition of this kind converges in law to Watson's U^2 distribution, as conjectured by Doron Zeilberger.
We study filters in the partition lattice formed by restricting to partitions by type. The Möbius function is determined in terms of the easier-to-compute descent set statistics on permutations and the Möbius function of filters in the lattice of integer compositions. When the underlying integer partition is a knapsack partition, the Möbius function on integer compositions is determined by a topological argument. In this proof the permutahedron makes a cameo appearance.
Inspired by Armin Straub's conjecture (arXiv:1601.07161) about the number and maximal size of (2n+1, 2n+3)-core partitions with distinct parts, we develop relatively efficient, symbolic-computational algorithms, based on non-linear functional recurrences, to generate the generating functions, according to size, of the set of such partitions. By computing these polynomials for n=1,...21, we are able to rigorously derive explicit expressions for the expectation, variance, and third through seventh moments of the random variable "size of a (2n+1, 2n+3)-core partition with distinct parts." In part…
For fixed s, the size of an (s, s+1)-core partition with distinct parts can be seen as a random variable X_s. Using computer-assisted methods, we derive formulas for the expectation, variance, and higher moments of X_s. Our results give good evidence that X_s is asymptotically normal.
Nice formulae for plane partitions with bounded size of parts (or boxed plane partitions), which generalize the norm-trace generating function by Stanley and the trace generating function by Gansner, are exhibited. The derivation of the nice formulae is based on lattice path combinatorics of biorthogonal polynomials, especially of the little $q$-Laguerre polynomials and a generalization of the little $q$-Laguerre polynomials. A summation formula which generalizes the $q$-Chu-Vandermonde identity is also shown and utilized to prove the orthogonality of the generalized little $q$-Laguerre polyno…
A subspace partition $Π$ of $V=V(n,q)$ is a collection of subspaces of $V$ such that each 1-dimensional subspace of $V$ is in exactly one subspace of $Π$. The size of $Π$ is the number of its subspaces. Let $σ_q(n,t)$ denote the minimum size of a subspace partition of $V$ in which the largest subspace has dimension $t$, and let $ρ_q(n,t)$ denote the maximum size of a subspace partition of $V$ in which the smallest subspace has dimension $t$. In this paper, we determine the values of $σ_q(n,t)$ and $ρ_q(n,t)$ for all positive integers $n$ and $t$. Furthermore, we prove that if $n\geq 2t$, then …
An $(n,k)$-Sperner partition system is a collection of partitions of some $n$-set, each into $k$ nonempty classes, such that no class of any partition is a subset of a class of any other. The maximum number of partitions in an $(n,k)$-Sperner partition system is denoted $\mathrm{SP}(n,k)$. In this paper we introduce a new construction for Sperner partition systems and use it to asymptotically determine $\mathrm{SP}(n,k)$ in many cases as $\frac{n}{k}$ becomes large. We also give a slightly improved upper bound for $\mathrm{SP}(n,k)$ and exhibit an infinite family of parameter sets $(n,k)$ for …
This article presents uniform random generators of plane partitions according to the size (the number of cubes in the 3D interpretation). Combining a bijection of Pak with the method of Boltzmann sampling, we obtain random samplers that are slightly superlinear: the complexity is $O(n (\ln n)^3)$ in approximate-size sampling and $O(n^{4/3})$ in exact-size sampling (under a real-arithmetic computation model). To our knowledge, these are the first polynomial-time samplers for plane partitions according to the size (there exist polynomial-time samplers of another type, which draw plane partitions…
A \textsl{Sperner $k$-partition system} on a set $X$ is a set of partitions of $X$ into $k$ classes such that the classes of the partitions form a Sperner set system (so no class from a partition is a subset of a class from another partition). These systems were defined by Meagher, Moura and Stevens in \cite{MMS} who showed that if $|X| = k \ell$, then the largest Sperner $k$-partition system has size $\frac{1}{k}\binom{|X|}{\ell}$. In this paper we find bounds on the size of the largest Sperner $k$-partition system where $k$ does not divide the size of $X$, specifically, we give an exact boun…
For $n$ and $k$ integers we introduce the notion of some partition of $n$ being able to generate another partition of $n$. We solve the problem of finding the minimum size partition for which the set of partitions this partition can generate contains all size-$k$ partitions of $n$. We describe how this result can be applied to solving a class of combinatorial optimization problems.
A \textit{distinguishing partition} of a group $X$ with automorphism group ${aut}(X)$ is a partition of $X$ that is fixed by no nontrivial element of ${aut}(X)$. In the event that $X$ is a complete multipartite graph with its automorphism group, the existence of a distinguishing partition is equivalent to the existence of an asymmetric hypergraph with prescribed edge sizes. An asymptotic result is proven on the existence of a distinguishing partition when $X$ is a complete multipartite graph with $m_1$ parts of size $n_1$ and $m_2$ parts of size $n_2$ for small $n_1$, $m_2$ and large $m_1$, $n…
Simultaneous core partitions have attracted much attention since Anderson's work on the number of $(t_1,t_2)$-core partitions. In this paper we focus on simultaneous core partitions with distinct parts. The generating function of $t$-core partitions with distinct parts is obtained. We also prove the results on the number, the largest size and the average size of $(t, t + 1)$-core partitions. This gives a complete answer to a conjecture of Amdeberhan, which is partly and independently proved by Straub, Nath and Sellers, and Zaleski recently.
In a previous paper (arXiv:1608.02262), we used computer-assisted methods to find explicit expressions for the moments of the size of a uniform random (n,n+1)-core partition with distinct parts. In particular, we conjectured that the distribution is asymptotically normal. However, our analysis hinged on a characterization of (n,n+1)-core partitions given by Straub, which is not readily generalized to other families of simultaneous core partitions. In another paper (arXiv:1611.05775) with Doron Zeilberger, we made use of the characterization in terms of posets to analyze (2n+1,2n+3)-core partit…
In this paper, we are interested in minimizing the sum of block sizes in a pairwise balanced design, where there are some constraints on the size of one block or the size of the largest block. For every positive integers n;m, where m ? n, let S(n;m) be the smallest integer s for which there exists a PBD on n points whose largest block has size m and the sum of its block sizes is equal to s. Also, let S0(n;m) be the smallest integers for which there exists a PBD on n points which has a block of size m and the sum of it block sizes is equal to s. We prove some lower bounds for S(n;m) and S0(n;m)…
Armstrong, Hanusa and Jones conjectured that if $s,t$ are coprime integers, then the average size of an $(s,t)$-core partition and the average size of a self-conjugate $(s,t)$-core partition are both equal to $\frac{(s+t+1)(s-1)(t-1)}{24}$. Stanley and Zanello showed that the average size of an $(s,s+1)$-core partition equals $\binom{s+1}{3}/2$. Based on a bijection of Ford, Mai and Sze between self-conjugate $(s,t)$-core partitions and lattice paths in $\lfloor \frac{s}{2} \rfloor\times \lfloor \frac{t}{2}\rfloor$ rectangle, we obtain the average size of a self-conjugate $(s,t)$-core partitio…
Johnson recently proved Armstrong's conjecture which states that the average size of an $(a,b)$-core partition is $(a+b+1)(a-1)(b-1)/24$. He used various coordinate changes and one-to-one correspondences that are useful for counting problems about simultaneous core partitions. We give an expression for the number of $(b_1,b_2,\cdots, b_n)$-core partitions where $\{b_1,b_2,\cdots,b_n\}$ contains at least one pair of relatively prime numbers. We also evaluate the largest size of a self-conjugate $(s,s+1,s+2)$-core partition.
Given three positive integers $n,a,b$ with $n=ab$, we determine the base size of the symmetric group and of the alternating group of degree $n$ in their action on the set of partitions into $b$ parts having cardinality $a$.
We study classes of set partitions determined by the avoidance of multiple patterns, applying a natural notion of partition containment that has been introduced by Sagan. We say that two sets S and T of patterns are equivalent if for each n, the number of partitions of size n avoiding all the members of S is the same as the number of those that avoid all the members of T. Our goal is to classify the equivalence classes among two-element pattern sets of several general types. First, we focus on pairs of patterns {σ,τ}, where σ is a pattern of size three with at least two distinct symbols and τ …
We derive a formula for the expected number of blocks of a given size from a non-crossing partition chosen uniformly at random. Moreover, we refine this result subject to the restriction of having a number of blocks given. Furthermore, we generalize to k-divisible partitions. In particular, we find that, asymptotically, the expected number of blocks of size t of a k-divisible non-crossing partition of nk elements chosen uniformly at random is (kn+1)/(k+1)^(t+1). Similar results are obtained for type B and type D k-divisible non-crossing partitions of Armstrong.
In this paper we construct for a given arbitrary skew diagram A all partitions nu with maximal principal hook lengths among all partitions with the character [nu] appearing in the skew character [A]. Furthermore we show that these are also partitions with minimal Durfee size. This we use to give the maximal Durfee size for [nu] appearing in [A] for the cases when A decays into two partitions and for some special cases of A. Also this gives conditions for two skew diagrams to represent the same skew character.
We give lower bounds on the size and total size of clique partitions of a graph in terms of its spectral radius and minimum degree, and derive a spectral upper bound for the maximum number of edge-disjoint $t$-cliques. The extremal graphs attaining the bounds are exactly the block graphs of Steiner $2$-designs and the regular graphs with $K_t$-decompositions, respectively.
We consider $(k,j)$-colored partitions, partitions in which $k$ colors exist but at most $j$ colors may be chosen per size of part. In particular these generalize overpartitions. Advancing previous work, we find new congruences, including in previously unexplored cases where $k$ and $j$ are not coprime, as well as some noncongruences. As a useful aside, we give the apparently new generating function for the number of partitions in the $N \times M$ box with a given number of part sizes, and extend to multiple colors a conjecture of Dousse and Kim on unimodality in overpartitions.
Let $V=V(n,q)$ denote the vector space of dimension $n$ over the finite field with $q$ elements. A subspace partition ${\mathcal P}$ of $V$ is a collection of nontrivial subspaces of $V$ such that each nonzero vector of $V$ is in exactly one subspace of ${\mathcal P}$. For any integer $d$, the $d$-supertail of ${\mathcal P}$ is the set of subspaces in ${\mathcal P}$ of dimension less than $d$, and it is denoted by $ST$. Let $σ_q(n,t)$ denote the minimum number of subspaces in any subspace partition of $V$ in which the largest subspace has dimension $t$. It was shown by Heden et al. that $|ST|\…
If $a_1, a_2, ..., a_k$ and $n$ are positive integers such that $n = a_1 + a_2 + ... + a_k$, then the sum $a_1 + a_2 + ... + a_k$ is said to be a \emph{partition of $n$} of \emph{length $k$}, and $a_1, a_2, ..., a_k$ are said to be the \emph{parts} of the partition. Two partitions that differ only in the order of their parts are considered to be the same. We say that two partitions \emph{intersect} if they have at least one common part. We call a set $A$ of partitions \emph{intersecting} if any two partitions in $A$ intersect. Let $P_{n,k}$ be the set of all partitions of $n$ of length $k$. We…
An $(n,k)$-Sperner partition system is a set of partitions of some $n$-set such that each partition has $k$ nonempty parts and no part in any partition is a subset of a part in a different partition. The maximum number of partitions in an $(n,k)$-Sperner partition system is denoted $\mathrm{SP}(n,k)$. In this paper we introduce a new construction for Sperner partition systems based on a division of the ground set into many equal-sized parts. We use this to asymptotically determine $\mathrm{SP}(n,k)$ in many cases where $\frac{n}{k}$ is bounded as $n$ becomes large. Further, we show that this c…
Stability and chemistry, both exohedral and endohedral, of fullerenes are critically dependent on the distribution of their obligatory 12 pentagonal faces. It is well known that there are infinitely many IPR-fullerenes and that the pentagons in these fullerenes can be at an arbitrarily large distance from each other. IPR-fullerenes can be described as fullerenes in which each connected cluster of pentagons has size 1. In this paper we study the combinations of cluster sizes that can occur in fullerenes and whether the clusters can be at an arbitrarily large distance from each other. For each p…
Given a graph $G$ and a non trivial partition $(V_1,V_2)$ of its vertex-set, the satisfaction of a vertex $v\in V_i$ is the ratio between the size of it's closed neighborhood in $V_i$ and the size of its closed neighborhood in $G$. The worst ratio over all the vertices defines the quality of the partition. We define $q(G)$ the degree ratio of a graph as the maximum of the worst ratio over all the non trivial partitions. We give bounds and exact values of $q(G)$ for some classes of graphs. We also show some complexity results for the associated optimization or decision problems.
We study the asymptotic behavior of the maximal multiplicity $M_n=M_n(σ)$ of the blocks in a set partition of $[n]=\{1,2,...,n\}$, assuming that $σ$ is chosen uniformly at random from the set of all such partitions. Let $W=W(n)$ be the unique positive root of the equation $We^W=n$ and let $f_n$ be the fractional part of $W(n)$. Furthermore, let $R_n=W^{\lfloor W\rfloor}/\lfloor W\rfloor !$ and let $\vartheta_n=\min{\{f_n,1-f_n\}}$. We show that, over a subsequence $\{n_k\}_{k\ge 1}$, $(M_{n_k}-R_{n_k})/\sqrt{R_{n_k}}$ converges weakly, as $k\to\infty$, to $\max{\{Z_1,Z_2-u\}}$, where $Z_1$ and…
We study generating functions which count the sizes of $t$-cores of partitions, and, more generally, the sizes of higher rows in $t$-core towers. We then use these results to derive an asymptotic for the average size of the $t$-defect of partitions, as well as some curious congruences.
Amdeberhan's conjectures on the enumeration, the average size, and the largest size of $(n,n+1)$-core partitions with distinct parts have motivated many research on this topic. Recently, Straub and Nath-Sellers obtained formulas for the numbers of $(n, dn-1)$ and $(n, dn+1)$-core partitions with distinct parts, respectively. Let $X_{s,t}$ be the size of a uniform random $(s,t)$-core partition with distinct parts when $s$ and $t$ are coprime to each other. Some explicit formulas for the $k$-th moments $\mathbb{E} [X_{n,n+1}^k]$ and $\mathbb{E} [X_{2n+1,2n+3}^k]$ were given by Zaleski and Zeilbe…
We present a new partition identity and give a combinatorial proof of our result. This generalizes a result of Andrew's in which he considers the generation function for partitions with respect to size, number of odd parts, and number of odd parts of the conjugate.
In this paper, we are mainly concerned with the enumeration of $(2k+1, 2k+3)$-core partitions with distinct parts. We derive the number and the largest size of such partitions, confirming two conjectures posed by Straub.
Let $λ$ be a partition of the positive integer $n$ chosen umiformly at random among all such partitions. Let $L_n=L_n(λ)$ and $M_n=M_n(λ)$ be the largest part size and its multiplicity, respectively. For large $n$, we focus on a comparison between the partition statistics $L_n$ and $L_n M_n$. In terms of convergence in distribution, we show that they behave in the same way. However, it turns out that the expectation of $L_n M_n -L_n$ grows as fast as $\frac{1}{2}\log{n}$ We obtain a precise asymptotic expansion for this expectation and conclude with an open problem arising from this study.
We study the distribution of several statistics of large non-crossing partitions. First, we prove the Gaussian limit theorem for the number of blocks of a given fixed size. In contrast to the properties of usual set partitions, we show that the number of blocks of different sizes are negatively correlated, even for large partitions. In addition, we show that the sizes of blocks in a given large non-crossing partition are distributed according to a geometric distribution and not Poisson, as in the case of usual set partitions. Next, we show that the size of the largest block concentrates at $\l…
We propose an aproach for asymptotic analysis of plane partition statistics related to counts of parts whose sizes exceed a certain suitably chosen level. In our study, we use the concept of conjugate trace of a plane partition of the positive integer $n$, introduced by Stanley in 1973. We derive generating functions and determine the asymptotic behavior of counts of large parts using a general scheme based on the saddle point method. In this way, we are able to prove a Poisson limit theorem for the number of parts of a random and uniformly chosen plane partition of $n$, whose sizes are greate…
Partition functions arise in statistical physics and probability theory as the normalizing constant of Gibbs measures and in combinatorics and graph theory as graph polynomials. For instance the partition functions of the hard-core model and monomer-dimer model are the independence and matching polynomials respectively. We show how stability results follow naturally from the recently developed occupancy method for maximizing and minimizing physical observables over classes of regular graphs, and then show these stability results can be used to obtain tight extremal bounds on the individual coe…
In the theory of Clebsch-Gordan coefficients, one may recognize the domain space as the set of weakly semi-magic squares of size three. Two partitions on this set are considered: a triangle-hexagon model based on top lines, and one based on the orbits under a finite group action. In addition to giving another proof of McMahon's formula, we give a generating function that counts the so-called trivial zeros of Clebsch-Gordan coefficients and its associated quasi-polynomial.
Motivated by the Nekrasov-Okounkov formula on hook lengths, the first author conjectured that the Plancherel average of the $2k$-th power sum of hook lengths of partitions with size $n$ is always a polynomial of $n$ for any $k\in \mathbb{N}$. This conjecture was generalized and proved by Stanley (Ramanujan J., 23(1--3): 91--105, 2010). In this paper, inspired by the work of Stanley and Olshanski on the differential poset of Young lattice, we study the properties of two kinds of difference operators $D$ and $D^-$ defined on functions of partitions. Even though the calculations for higher orders…
Jaclyn Anderson proved that if s and t are relatively prime positive integers, then there are exactly (s+t-1)!/(s!t!) partitions whose set of hook-lengths is disjoint from the set {s,t}. Drew Armstrong conjectured (and Paul Johnson, and a bit later, Victor Wang, proved) a beautiful expression for the average size, namely (s-1)(t-1)(s+t+1)/24 . In the present article, we go far beyond the average, and state absolutely certain expressions (but "officially" still conjectures) for the variance (showing in particular that it is rather large, and there is no "concentration about the mean"), and the …
Strongly refining results by Regev, Regev and Zeilberger, we prove surprising coincidences between characters to 2-part partitions of size n and characters to hooks of size n+2 on two related families obtained by extending 2-regular conjugacy classes.
Chen, Deng, Du, Stanley, and Yan introduced the notion of $k$-crossings and $k$-nestings for set partitions, and proved that the sizes of the largest $k$-crossings and $k$-nestings in the partitions of an $n$-set possess a symmetric joint distribution. This work considers a generalization of these results to set partitions whose arcs are labeled by an $r$-element set (which we call \emph{$r$-colored set partitions}). In this context, a $k$-crossing or $k$-nesting is a sequence of arcs, all with the same color, which form a $k$-crossing or $k$-nesting in the usual sense. After showing that the …
Let $\mathcal{B}(n)$ denote the collection of all set partitions of $[n]$. Suppose $\mathcal{A} \subseteq \mathcal{B}(n)$ is a non-trivial $t$-intersecting family of set partitions i.e. any two members of $\A$ have at least $t$ blocks in common, but there is no fixed $t$ blocks of size one which belong to all of them. It is proved that for sufficiently large $n$ depending on $t$, \[ |\mathcal{A}| \le B_{n-t}-\tilde{B}_{n-t}-\tilde{B}_{n-t-1}+t \] where $B_{n}$ is the $n$-th Bell number and $\tilde{B}_{n}$ is the number of set partitions of $[n]$ without blocks of size one. Moreover, equality h…
Anderson established a connection between core partitions and order ideals of certain posets by mapping a partition to its $β$-set. In this paper, we give a characterization of the poset $P_{(s,s+1,s+2)}$ whose order ideals correspond to $(s,s+1,s+2)$-core partitions. Using this characterization, we obtain the number of $(s,s+1,s+2)$-core partitions, the maximum size and the average size of an $(s,s+1,s+2)$-core partition, confirming three conjectures posed by Amdeberhan.
