The partition function and Hecke operators (Q635496): Difference between revisions

Let \(p(n)\) denote the number of partitions of \(n\), so that \[ \sum_{n \geq 0} p(n)q^{24n-1} = \frac{1}{\eta(24z)} =: P(z), \] where as usual \(q := e^{2 \pi i z}\) and \(\eta(z)\) is Dedekind's \(\eta\)-function. It turns out that if \(F_{\ell}(z)\) (for primes \(\ell \geq 5\)) is defined by \[ F_{\ell}(24z) := \eta(24z)\left(P(z) \mid T(\ell^2)\right), \] where \(T(\ell^2)\) denotes the `normalized'' Hecke action on modular forms of weight \(-1/2\) and character \(\left(\frac{12}{\cdot}\right)\), then \(F_{\ell}(z)\) is a polynomial in the modular \(j\)-invariant \(j(z)\). The author determines this polynomial. It is \[ \ell\left(\frac{3}{\ell}\right) + A\left(\frac{\ell^2-1}{24};x\right), \] where \(A(m;x)\) is defined by \[ \sum_{m \geq 0} A(m;x)q^m := q^{-1/24}\eta(z) \cdot \frac{E_4(z)^2E_6(z)}{\Delta(z)} \cdot \frac{1}{j(z)-x}. \] Here \(E_4(z)\) and \(E_6(z)\) are the usual Eisenstein series and \(\Delta(z) := \eta^{24}(z)\). The author's main theorem is then \[ P(z) \mid T(\ell^2) = P(z) \cdot \left(\ell\left(\frac{3}{\ell}\right) + A\left(\frac{\ell^2-1}{24};j(24z)\right)\right). \] He gives a corollary (a congruence modulo \(\ell\) for the \((\ell^2-1)/24\)th power of \(\Delta(z)\)) and presents three nice examples to illustrate the results. One of the examples illustrates how to efficiently compute partition numbers of the form \(p((n\ell^2+1)/24)\)