Lacunarity of Han-Nekrasov-Okounkov \(q\)-series (Q2660055)

Recall that a series \(\sum_{n = 0}^\infty a(n) q^n\) is \textit{lacunary} if \[ \lim_{x \to \infty} \frac{\#\{0 \leq n < x \ : \ a(n) = 0\}}{x} = 1. \] The authors begin their paper by surveying some results relating partitions of integers to certain generating functions. They begin with Euler's identity \(\prod_{n = 1}^\infty (1 - q^n) = \sum_{m = - \infty}^\infty (-1)^m q^{\frac{3m^2 + m}{2}}\), and culminate with an identity by Han which relates the infinite product \(\prod_{n = 1}^\infty \frac{(1 - q^{an})^a (1 - (y q^a)^n)^{b-a}}{1 - q^n}\) to a combinatorial sum over partitions. A small change of variables yields the following function, which is the main object of interest in this paper: \[ F_{a, b, c}(z) := \frac{\eta(24 a z)^a \eta(24 a c z)^{b - a}}{\eta(24 z)} = q^{abc + a^2 - a^2 c - 1} \prod_{n = 1}^\infty \frac{(1 - q^{24 an})^a (1 - q^{24 a c n})^{b-a}}{1 - q^{24n}}. \] Here, \(\eta(z) := q^{1/24} \prod_{n = 1}^\infty (1 - q^n)\) is the Dedekind eta function, and \(q := e^{2 \pi i z}\) as is typical in the study of modular forms. Throughout, the authors assume that \(a, b, c \geq 1\) are integers and \(b\) is odd. Under these hypotheses, \(F_{a, b, c}\) is a weakly holomorphic modular form of weight \(\frac{b - 1}{2}\). The authors prove that \(F_{3, a, c}\) is lacunary whenever \(a \in \{1, 2, 3\}\) and \(F_{5, a, c}\) is lacunary whenever \(a \in \{1, 2\}\). This is almost immediate from Deligne's and Serre's result that a weight-one holomorphic modular form on a congruence group is lacunary, though they also use Serre's result that positive-definine binary quadratic forms represent 0\% of the integers. On the other hand, the authors prove that if \(a \geq 4\), \(b \geq 1\) is odd, and \(c \geq 2\), then \(F_{a, b, c}\) is not lacunary except possibly if \((a, b, c) \in \{(4, 5, 3), (4, 5, 5), (4, 5, 11)\}\). This proof is more involved: the authors first reduce their task to verifying certain \(F_{a, b, c}\) are not linear combinations of cusp forms with complex multiplication, and then to verifying that these \(F_{a, b, c}\) are not annihilated by the application of particular Hecke operators, and then use the Polya-Vindograv inequality to preclude annihilation in this manner. The authors conjecture that \(F_{a, b, c}\) is lacunary even if \((a, b, c) \in \{(4, 5, 3), (4, 5, 5), (4, 5, 11)\}\), and suggest a computational method for verifying this conjecture, but say they lacked the computational power to perform this verification themselves. They prove The reader is advised that there is a typo in equation 1.5: the expression \((1 - q)^n\) in the denominator of the righthand side of the equation ought to be \(1 - q^n\). In addition, there is a line missing from the table at the top of page 626: when \(a = 3\), the function \(F_{a, b, 1}\) is lacunary exactly if \(b \in \{3, 5, 9\}\).