\(\ell\)-adic properties of the partition function. Appendix A by Nick Ramsey (Q664751)

Let \(p(n)\) denote the number of partitions of \(n\) and let \(\ell \geq 5\) be prime. With \(q := e^{2 \pi i z}\), define \[ P_{\ell}(b;z) := \sum_{n \geq 0} p\left(\frac{\ell^b n + 1}{24}\right)q^{\frac{n}{24}}. \] The authors' first theorem says that given \(\ell\) and \(m\) with \(5 \leq \ell \leq 31\) and \(m \geq 1\), whenever \(b_1 \equiv b_2 \pmod{2}\) are integers for which \[ b_2 > b_1 \geq b_{\ell}(m) := 2\left(\Big \lfloor\frac{\ell-1}{12}\Big \rfloor+2\right)m - 3, \] then there is an integer \(A_{\ell}(b_1,b_2,m)\) such that \[ P_{\ell}(b_1;24z) \equiv A_{\ell}(b_1,b_2,m) P_{\ell}(b_2;24z) \pmod{\ell^m}. \] As examples, the authors exhibit the congruences \[ p(13^3n+1007) \equiv 6p(13n+6) \pmod{13} \] and \[ p(13^4n+27371) \equiv 45p(13^2n+162) \pmod{13^2}. \] They actually prove a much more general theorem, and in an appendix by Nick Ramsey (based on observations of Frank Calegari), this result is placed in the framework of overconvergent half-integral weight \(p\)-adic modular forms. The authors also show that for \(\ell\) and \(m\) as above and for \(b \geq b_{\ell}(m)\), the series \(P_{\ell}(b;24z) \pmod{\ell^m}\) is an eigenform of all the weight \(\ell^m - \ell^{m-1} - \frac{1}{2}\) Hecke operators on \(\Gamma_0(576)\). The paper was motivated by observations and results of Atkin and O'Brien from the 1960's on congruence properties of \(p(n)\) modulo small powers of primes \(\ell \leq 31\).