Maass forms and the mock theta function \(f(q)\) (Q2314806)

Let \[f(q):=1+ \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \alpha(n) q^n \] be the third order mock theta of Ramanujan. Let \(\psi(n)\) is some expression involving generalized Kloosterman sums and the \(I\)-Bessel function. Then, it is well known that, in 1964, \textit{G. E. Andrews} [``On the theorems of Watson and Dragonette for Ramanujan's mock theta functions'', Am. J. Math. 88, 454--490 (1966)] proved an asymptotic formula of the form \[ \alpha(n) \sum_{c \leq \sqrt{n}} \psi(n) + O_\varepsilon (n^\varepsilon). \] Furthermore, he conjectured that the series converges to \(\alpha(n)\) when extended to infinity, and that it does not converge absolutely. \textit{K. Bringmann} and \textit{K. Ono} [Invent. Math. 165, No. 2, 243--266 (2006; Zbl 1135.11057)] proved the first of these conjectures. In the paper under review, the authors improved this bound by obtaining a power savings bound for the error in Andrews' formula and proved the second of these conjectures. The proofs are based on the spectral theory of Maass forms of half-integral weight, and in particular on an average estimate for the Fourier coefficients of such forms which gives a power savings in the spectral parameter. As an application of this result, they derive a formula which expresses \(\alpha(n)\) with small error as a sum of exponential terms over imaginary quadratic points. They also obtain a bound for the size of the error term incurred by truncating Rademacher's analytic formula for the ordinary partition function which improves a result of the first author and Andersen when \(24n-23\) is squarefree.