Multiplicative relations in powers of Euler's product (Q5942982)

Let \((q)_\infty = \prod_{k=1}^\infty (1-q^k)\). In this paper, the author proves three conjectures of \textit{S. Cooper, M. Hirschhorn} and \textit{R. P. Lewis} [Ramanujan J. 4, 137-155 (2000; Zbl 0989.11053)] concerning the coefficients of the Fourier expansions of \((q)_\infty^r(q^i)_\infty^s\), with \(i=2,3,\) and 4. A typical example of their conjectures states that if \(p\equiv 5\pmod{6}\) and \[ (q)_\infty^2(q^3)_\infty^2 = \sum_{n=0}^\infty a(n)q^n,\tag{\( \dagger\)} \] then \[ a\left(pn+\frac{8(p^2-1)}{24}\right) = -pa\left(\frac{n}{p}\right).\tag{*} \] The author proves results such as (*) by first identifying the left hand side of (*) as a modular form (the left hand side has to be multiplied by a factor of \(q\)), say \(F(q)\). He then expresses \(F(q)\) as a linear combination of normalized eigenforms \(\varphi_{K_i,i}(q)\), namely, \[ F(q) = \sum_{i=1}^l a_i\varphi_{K_i,i}(q). \] These eigenforms \(\varphi_{K_i,i}(q)\) depend on Hecke characters \(c_{K_i,i}\) modulo \(\mathfrak m\) of the imaginary quadratic field \(K_i\) and the norm of ideals relatively prime to \(\mathfrak m\) in \(K_i\). The advantage of using \(\varphi_{K_i,i}(q)\) is that these functions \(\varphi_{K_i,i}(q)\) are annihilated by the Hecke operator \(T(p)\) when \(p\) is inert in all the quadratic fields \(K_i\), \(i=1,\cdots, l\) (some of these fields may be identical). This shows that \(F(q)\) is annihilated by \(T(p)\), which proves (*).