Congruences for modular forms and applications to crank functions (Q6606887)

A partition \(\lambda\) of a positive integer \(n\) is a weakly decreasing sequence of positive integers \(\lambda_1\geq\lambda_2\geq\cdots\geq\lambda_r\) such that \(\sum_{i=1}^r\lambda_i=n\). Let \(p(n)\) denote the number of partitions of \(n\) with the convention that \(p(0)=1\). A breakthrough of applying modular forms to partition function \(p(n)\) is due to \textit{K. Ono} [Ann. Math. (2) 151, No. 1, 293--307 (2000; Zbl 0984.11050)]. He proved that for any prime \(\ell\geq5\), there are infinitely many non-nested arithmetic progressions \(An+B\) such that for any \(n\geq0\),\N\begin{align*}\Np(An+B)\equiv0\pmod{\ell}.\N\end{align*}\NTo give combinatorial interpretations of Ramanujan's three well-known congruences:\N\begin{align*}\Np(5n+4) &\equiv0\pmod{5},\\\Np(7n+5) &\equiv0\pmod{7},\\\Np(11n+6) &\equiv0\pmod{11}.\N\end{align*}\N\textit{F. J. Dyson} [Eureka (Cambridge) 8 (1944), 10--15] conjectured the existence of a statistic named crank, and its definition was discovered by \textit{G. E. Andrews} and \textit{F. G. Garvan} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc., New Ser. 18, No. 2, 167--171 (1988; Zbl 0646.10008)]. Let \(M(m,n)\) denote the number of partitions of \(n\) with crank \(m\). The generating function of \(M(m,n)\) is\N\begin{align*}\N\sum_{m=-\infty}^\infty\sum_{n=0}^\infty M(m,n)z^mq^n=\dfrac{(q;q)_\infty} {(zq;q)_\infty(z^{-1}q;q)_\infty},\N\end{align*}\Nwhere\N\begin{align*}\N(a;q)_\infty:=\prod_{k=0}^\infty(1-aq^k).\N\end{align*}\NLet \(M(t,m,n)\) denote the number of partitions of \(n\) in which the crank is congruent to \(t\) modulo \(m\). \textit{K. Mahlburg} [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, No. 43, 15373--15376 (2005; Zbl 1155.11350)] developed the theory of congruences for crank generating functions, which are shown to possess the same sort of arithmetic properties as the partition function. For example, Mahlburg proved that if \(k\) is a positive integer, then there are infinitely many non-nested arithmetic progressions \(An+B\) such that for any \(n\geq0\),\N\begin{align*}\NM(m,\ell^j,An+B)\equiv0\pmod{\ell^k},\N\end{align*}\Nwhere \(0\leq m\leq\ell^j-1\).\N\NIn this paper, the authors consider congruence properties for a large class of modular forms. Moreover, we generalize the generating function of the Andrews-Garvan-Dyson crank of partitions and establish several new infinite families of congruences. For instance, let\N\begin{align*}\N\sum_{n=0}^\infty M_{r,d,t}(m,N,n)q^n &:=\dfrac{1}{N}\sum_{s=0}^{N-1}\zeta^{-ms}{\left( \prod_{n=1}^\infty\dfrac{(1-q^{rn})^d}{(1-q^n)^t(1-\zeta^sq^n)(1-\zeta^{-s}q^n)}\right)},\N\end{align*}\Nwhere \(\zeta=e^{2\pi i/N}\). The authors prove the following theorem.\N\NTheorem 1. Let \(j\), \(v\) be positive integers. Fix a prime number \(\ell>\max\{5,dr^2\}\) such that \(\big(\frac{g^2d-tr}{\ell}\big)\) are the same for all \(g\!\mid\!r\). Then there are infinitely many non-nested arithmetic progressions \(An+B\) such that for any \(n\geq0\),\N\begin{align*}\NM_{r,d,t}(m,\ell^j,An+B)\equiv0\pmod{\ell^v},\N\end{align*}\Nsimultaneously for every \(0\leq m\leq\ell^j-1\).\N\NMoreover, the authors prove that both the birank of an ordered pair of partitions introduced by \textit{P. Hammond} and \textit{R. Lewis} [Int. J. Math. Math. Sci. 2004, No. 45-48, 2509--2512 (2004; Zbl 1063.05016)], and \(k\)-crank of \(k\)-colored partitions introduced by \textit{S. Fu} and the reviewer [J. Number Theory 184, 485--497 (2018; Zbl 1420.11130)], have the same properties as the partition function and crank.