On the distribution of the \textsf{spt}-crank (Q401771)

Summary: \textit{G. E. Andrews} et al. [Acta Arith. 158, No. 3, 199--218 (2013; Zbl 1268.05019)] introduced the \textsf{spt}-crank for vector partitions. We conjecture that for any \(n\) the sequence \(\{NS(m,n)\}_m\) is unimodal, where \(NS(m,n)\) is the number of S-partitions of size \(n\) with crank \(m\) weighted by the \textsf{spt}-crank. We relate this conjecture to a distributional result concerning the usual rank and crank of unrestricted partitions. This leads to a heuristic that suggests the conjecture is true and allows us to asymptotically establish the conjecture. Additionally, we give an asymptotic study for the distribution of the \textsf{spt}-crank statistic. Finally, we give some speculations about a definition for the \textsf{spt}-crank in terms of ``marked'' partitions. A ``marked'' partition is an unrestricted integer partition where each part is marked with a multiplicity number. It remains an interesting and apparently challenging problem to interpret the \textsf{spt}-crank in terms of ordinary integer partitions.