Asymptotics of crank generating functions and Ramanujan congruences (Q746393)

Using the circle method, the author derives an asymptotic formula for the Fourier coefficients of \(C(e^{\frac{2\pi i a}{c}};q)\), where \(0 < a < c\) are coprime integers, \(c\) is odd, and \[ C(z;q) := \prod_{n \geq 1} \frac{(1-q^n)}{(1-zq^n)(1-q^n/z)}. \] For \(n \geq 2\), the coefficient of \(z^mq^n\) in the expansion of \(C(z;q)\) is the number of partitions of \(n\) with \textit{crank} equal to \(m\). \textit{F. G. Garvan} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 305, No. 1, 47--77 (1988; Zbl 0641.10009)] showed that if \(M(a,c,n)\) denotes the number of partitions of \(n\) with crank congruent to \(a\) modulo \(c\), then for any integer \(a\) and for all non-negative integers \(n\) we have \[ M(a,5,5n+4) = \frac{1}{5}p(5n+4), \] \[ M(a,7,7n+5) = \frac{1}{7}p(7n+5), \] and \[ M(a,11,11n+6) = \frac{1}{11}p(11n+6), \] where \(p(n)\) denotes the number of partitions of \(n\). Thus the crank provides a combinatorial explanation of Ramanujan's congruences \[ p(5n+4) \equiv 0 \pmod{5}, \] \[ p(7n+5) \equiv 0 \pmod{7}, \] and \[ p(11n+6) \equiv 0 \pmod{11}. \] An interesting consequence of the author's asymptotic formula is that for \(0 \leq a < b \leq \frac{c-1}{2}\) with \(c > 11\) an odd integer, we have \[ M(a,c,n) > M(b,c,n) \] for all \(n > N_{a,b,c}\), where \(N_{a,b,c}\) is an explicit constant. This means that the crank cannot explain any congruences for \(p(n)\) other than Ramanujan's.