An unexpected Ramanujan-type congruence modulo 7 for 4-colored generalized Frobenius partitions (Q1688190)

Let \(c\phi_k(n)\) denote the number of \(k\)-colored generalized Frobenius partitions of \(n\), that is, two-rowed arrays of nonnegative integers in which each row is nonincreasing and, if rows are of length \(r\), then the sum of both rows together is \(n-r\), further allowing integers to have any of \(k\) colors. Rotation of colors easily gives various congruences for \(c\phi_k(An+B)\) modulo \(k\) or divisors thereof in suitable arithmetic progressions; these and closely related congruences may be regarded as ``unsurprising.'' The authors establish, for \(N \geq 0\), \(n \geq 0\), \[ c\phi_{7N+4}(7n+6) \equiv 0 \pmod{7}. \] Since \(7 \nmid 7N+4\), this result would be more ``surprising'' by the same standard. The authors employ theta function identities, the triple and quintuple product identities, and the like.