Multiplicative properties of the number of \(k\)-regular partitions (Q295279)

For an integer \(k > 1\), let \(p_k(n)\) be the number of \(k\)-regular partitions, i.e., partitions that do not contain a part that is divisible by \(k\). In a recent paper of \textit{C. Bessenrodt} and \textit{K. Ono} [Ann. Comb. 20, No. 1, 59--64 (2016; Zbl 1332.05013)], it was shown that the ordinary partition function \(p(n)\) satisfies the multiplicative inequality \(p(a)p(b) > p(a+b)\) for all \(a,b > 1\) for for which \(a+b > 9\). This was used to determine the maximum of the extended partition function \[ p(\mu) = \prod_{j \geq 1} p(\mu_j), \] where \(\mu = (\mu_1,\mu_2,\ldots)\) is itself a partition, over all possible partitions \(\mu\) of a fixed number \(n\). The paper under review provides analogous results for the function \(p_k\). For \(k > 6\), the maximum and the partition for which it is attained remain the same, so the focus lies on the cases where \(2 \leq k \leq 6\). It is shown that \(p_k(a)p_k(b) > p_k(a+b)\) if \(a,b \geq n_k\) and \(a+b \geq m_k\), where \(n_k\) and \(m_k\) are constants that are provided explicitly in all cases. This is used to determine the maximum of the analogue of the extended partition function, i.e., \[ p_k(\mu) = \prod_{j \geq 1} p_k(\mu_j), \] for \(2 \leq k \leq 6\).