Families of congruences for fractional partition functions modulo powers of primes (Q1983156)

\textit{S. T. Ng} [The Ramanujan's partition congruences. Singapore: National University of Singapore (Undergratuate Thesis) (2003)] considered the congruence properties for \(p_{a/b}(n)\), defined by \[ \sum_{n=0}^\infty p_{a/b}(n)q^n=(q;q)_\infty^{a/b}, \] where \(a/b\) is a negative rational number and \[ (a;q)_\infty=\prod_{i=0}^\infty(1-aq^i),\quad|q|<1. \] Utilizing the theory of modular forms, he proved that for any \(n\geq0\), \[ p_{-2/3}(19n+9)\equiv0\pmod{19}. \] Here, we say that \(c/d\equiv0\pmod{p^k}\) if \(\nu_p(c)-\nu_p(d)\geq k\), where \(\nu_p(x)\) denote the highest power of \(p\) dividing \(x\). In 2019, \textit{H. H. Chan} and \textit{L. Wang} [Acta Arith. 187, No. 1, 59--80 (2019; Zbl 1435.11135)] further studied congruences properties satisfied by \(p_{a/b}(n)\), where \(a/b\in\mathbb{Q}\backslash\mathbb{Z}\). They derived a number of congruences for \(p_{a/b}(n)\). At the end of their paper, Chan and Wang posed many conjectural congruences modulo powers of \(5\) and \(7\) satisfied by \(p_{a/b}(n)\). \textit{E. X. W. Xia} and \textit{H. Zhu} [Ramanujan J. 53, No. 2, 245--267 (2020; Zbl 1468.11216)] not only confirm these conjectures due to Chan and Wang, but establish many new infinite families of congruences modulo powers of \(5\), \(7\), and \(13\) for \(p_{a/b}(n)\) via Ramanujan's modular equations of fifth, seventh and thirteenth orders. The authors derive new families of congruences modulo powers of primes using Rogers-Ramanujan continued fraction and some dissection formulas of \(q\)-series. Moreover, the authors prove analogous congruences in the coefficients of the fractional powers of the generating function for the 2-color partition function \(p_{[1,\beta;\alpha]}(n)\), given by \[ \sum_{n=0}^\infty p_{[1,\beta;\alpha]}(n)q^n={\left((q;q)_\infty(q^\beta;q^\beta)\right)}^\alpha. \] For example, the authors prove that for any \(n\geq0\), \begin{align*} p_{-1/6}(25n+r) &\equiv0\pmod{25},\quad r\in\{9,14,19,24\},\\ p_{-5/6}(125n+r) &\equiv0\pmod{25},\quad r\in\{45,70,95,120\} \end{align*} and \begin{align*} p_{[1,2;-1/5]}(11n+8) &\equiv0\pmod{11},\\ p_{[1,2,-10/17]}(9n+3r+1) &\equiv0\pmod{9},\quad r\in\{1,2\}. \end{align*}