\(M_2\)-ranks of overpartitions modulo 4 and 8 (Q829661)

Overpartitions are partitions where the first (or equivalently, the last) instance of a part is overlined. Then the \(M_2\)-rank of an overpartition, \(\lambda\) is defined as \[ M_2-\text{rank}(\lambda):=\lfloor \ell(\lambda)/2 \rfloor -n(\lambda)+n(\lambda_o)-\chi(\lambda), \] where \(\ell(\lambda)\) is the largest part of \(\lambda\), \(n(\lambda)\) is the number of parts of \(\lambda\), \(\lambda_o\) is the partition with non-overlined odd parts of the overpartition \(\lambda\) and \(\chi(\lambda)\) is \(1\) if \(\ell(\lambda)\) is odd and non-overlined and it is \(0\) otherwise. Also, \(\overline{N}_2(s,m,n)\) is the number of overpartitions of \(n\) with \(M_2\)-rank congruent to \(s\) modulo \(m\). The authors find relations between the generating function \[ \sum_{n\geq 0}(\overline{N}_2(i,j,n)-\overline{N}_2(k,j,n))q^n \] and the second order mock-theta functions for \((i,j,k)=(0,4,2), (1,8,3), (0,8,4), (2,8,4), (0,8,2)\). They also find some inequalities on \(M_2\)-ranks of overpartitions. These results are to be viewed as part of an ongoing program of finding such \(M_2\)-rank differences of overpartitions modulo \(k\), for \(k=3, 5\) by \textit{J. Lovejoy} and \textit{R. Osburn} [Acta Arith. 144, No. 2, 193--212 (2010; Zbl 1235.11093)], for \(k=6, 10\) by \textit{H. W. J. Zhang} [Ramanujan J. 51, No. 2, 353--389 (2020; Zbl 1440.11192)] and finally for \(k=4,8\) in this paper.