Partition congruences by involutions (Q1888290)

In 1948, \textit{N. J. Fine} [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 34, 616--618 (1948; Zbl 0031.34801)] gave a number of elegant partition theorems. Recently, the second author [\textit{I. Pak}, On Fine's partition theorems, Dyson, Andrews, and missed opportunities, Math. Intell. 25, No. 1, 10--16 (2003)] presented combinatorial proofs of all of Fine's results except the following: {The number of partitions of \(n\) into distinct parts with odd smallest part is odd if and only if \(n\) is a perfect square.} In this paper the authors describe an involution on certain restricted joint partitions which implies not only Fine's theorem but many other attractive results. Here a joint partition is a pair of partitions, one ordinary and one into distinct parts. The authors announce that their proofs should be considered ``Proofs from the book.'' The reviewer wishes to add that although it is said to have ``remained elusive until now,'' Fine's theorem is a corollary of a theorem of \textit{K. Uchimura} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 31, 131--135 (1981; Zbl 0473.05006)] which was proven bijectively by \textit{D. M. Bressoud} and \textit{M. V. Subbarao} [Can. Math. Bull. 27, 143--145 (1984; Zbl 0536.10013)].