Exact formulae for the fractional partition functions (Q2183183)

When \(\alpha\) is a positive integer, the partition function \(p_\alpha(n)\), defined by \[ \sum_{n=0}^\infty p_\alpha(n) q^n = \prod_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{(1-q^n)^\alpha} \] counts the number of partitions of \(n\) in which each term is labeled with one of \(\alpha\) different colors, where the order of the colors does not matter. In this paper the authors extend the definition of \(p_\alpha(n)\) to arbitrary real \(\alpha\) and using the Rademacher circle method they provide exact formulas for \(p_\alpha(n)\) when \(\alpha>0\) and \(n>\alpha/24\). Some implications of this result are investigate in this context.