\(m\)-dissections of some infinite products and related identities (Q2168707)

The readers are reminded of the following customary \(q\)-series notations before we briefly summarize the content of the paper under review. \begin{align*} (a;q)_{\infty} &:= \prod_{n=0}^{\infty} (1-aq^n), \\ (a_1,\ldots,a_j;q)_{\infty} &:= (a_1;q)_{\infty}\cdots(a_j;q)_{\infty},\\ \langle a;q^k\rangle_{\infty} &:= (a,q^k/a,q^k;q^k)_{\infty},\\ Q(t,m) &:= \frac{(q^{2t},q^{m-2t},q^m;q^m)_{\infty}}{(q^{t},q^{m-t};q^m)_{\infty}}, \end{align*} where the last two expressions are introduced in this paper for ease of notation, and \(m\) is assumed throughout to be an integer relatively prime to 6, \(t\) is an integer such that \(1\le t< m/2\) and \(\gcd(t,m)=1\). Moreover, \(\langle a;q^k\rangle_{\infty}\) and \(Q(t,m)\) are referred to as triple product and quintuple product, respectively. The main results of this paper are 1) the \(m\)-dissections of \((q;q)_{\infty}\) and \(Q(t,m)\), in terms of quintuple products. Direct corollaries of the main theorems include 2) the sign pattern of the coefficients in the series expansion of \(\frac{(q;q)_{\infty}}{(q^m;q^m)_{\infty}}\) and \(\frac{Q(t,m)}{(q^m;q^m)_{\infty}}\); 3) various Lambert series identities. A section-by-section breakdown of the contents is as follows. Section 1 lists most of the notations and the primary preliminary results that the ensuing deductions build on. These include the Jacobi triple product identity, the quintuple product identity (Eq. (1.8)), as well as several elementary identities concerning infinite products (most notably Eq. (1.11)). Section 2 focuses on the \(m\)-dissection of \((q;q)_{\infty}\) in terms of various \(Q(\,,\,)\), which is Theorem 2.1. The author presents here four illustrative examples before stating and proving Theorem 2.1, so as to get the readers familiar with the pattern and the gist of the idea behind the ``grouping argument''. The well-known 5-, 7- and 11-dissections of \((q;q)_{\infty}\) (Corollary 2.1), and the sign pattern as well as the eventual nonvanishing properties of \(\frac{(q;q)_{\infty}}{(q^m;q^m)_{\infty}}\) (Theorem 2.2) readily follow from Theorem 2.1. This section ends with a concrete example. Section 3 applies largely the same idea to the quintuple product \(Q(t,m)\) and derives parallel results: Theorem 3.1, Corollary 3.1, and Theorem 3.2. Extra care needs to be taken for pairing the terms coming from the \(m\)-dissections of two different quintuples, and again, illustrative examples are provided so the ensuing arguments are well motivated. Note that Corollary 3.1 gives 5 dissections for the Ramanujan's function \(R(q)\) and its reciprocal, and this result was previously proven by \textit{M. D. Hirschhorn} [Ramanujan J. 24, No. 1, 85--92 (2011; Zbl 1231.11010)]. I believe the expression of \(R(q)\) given in the paper is a typo and the correct version should be \(R(q) := \frac{(q,q^4;q^5)_{\infty}}{(q^2;q^3;q^5)_{\infty}}\). Sections 4 and 5 consider \((q;q)^3_{\infty}\) and \((z,q/z,q;q)_{\infty}(qz^2,q/z^2;q^2)_{\infty}\) respectively, derive Lambert series identities by comparing coefficients of different \(m\)-dissections of them. The last section concludes with some discussions on the possible lines of research for integer \(m\) that is not relatively prime to 6, like \(m=3^k\) or \(m=2^k\). The last section concludes with some discussions on the possible lines of research for integer \(m\) that is not relatively prime to 6, like \(m=3^k\) or \(m=2^k\).