Monotonicity properties for ranks of overpartitions (Q2288316)

To interpret Ramanujan's famous partition congruences modulo 5 and 7, Dyson defined the rank of a partition. In [Ann. Comb. 9, No. 3, 321--334 (2005; Zbl 1114.11081); Ann. Comb. 12, No. 1, 101--113 (2008; Zbl 1147.11062), \textit{J. Lovejoy}] introduced subsequently the \(D\)-rank and \(M_2\)-rank of an overpartition, to further study some properties of overpartitions. Let \(N(m,n)\) denote the number of partitions of \(n\) with rank \(m\). In [Adv. Math. 258, 414--437 (2014; Zbl 1294.11179)], \textit{S. H. Chan} and \textit{R. Mao} established the following two monotonicity properties (\(m, n\geq0\)): \begin{gather*} N(m,n)\geq N(m,n-1),~\text{where}~n\geq12~\text{and}~n\neq m+2;\tag{1}\\ \;N(m,n)\geq N(m+2,n). \end{gather*} At the end of their paper, Chan and Mao proposed a conjecture on monotonicity properties of \(D\)-rank and \(M_2\)-rank of an overpartition similar to (1). The authors of the present paper not only confirm the Chan-Mao monotonicity conjecture, but derive another monotonicity property enjoyed by \(D\)-rank and \(M_2\)-rank. These results can be viewed as a natural analogue of that of Chan and Mao [loc. cit.] on rank. Let \(\overline{N}(m,n)\) (resp. \(\overline{N2}(m,n)\)) denote the number of partitions of \(n\) with \(D\)-rank (resp. \(M_2\)-rank) \(m\), the authors prove that for any \(m,n\geq0\), \begin{align*} \overline{N}(m,n)\geq\overline{N}(m,n-1),~&\text{where}~n\neq m+2~\text{and} ~(m,n)\neq(0,4);\\ \overline{N2}(m,n) &\geq\overline{N2}(m,n-1);\\ \overline{N}(m,n) &\geq\overline{N}(m+2,n);\\ \overline{N2}(m,n) &\geq\overline{N2}(m+2,n). \end{align*}