Partition problems and a pattern of vertical sums

zbMATH Open1439.11013arXiv1708.00858MaRDI QIDQ5223063FDOQ5223063

Authors: Eunice Krinsky, Serban Raianu, Alexander Wittmond 

Publication date: 5 July 2019

Abstract: We give a possible explanation for the mystery of a missing number in the statement of a problem that asks for the non-negative integers to be partitioned into three subsets. We interpret the missing number as one of the clues that can lead to a more standard solution to the problem, using only congruence modulo five, and we give the details to the new solution, which is based on an algorithm inspired by noticing alternating differences between sums of elements of the same rank in the three sets. Our new solution is equivalent to the partition consisting of numbers with remainders one or three modulo five, two or four modulo five, and multiples of five, which we call the standard partition. We then find all other similar statements with the same pattern of sums, we apply the algorithm to them, and we describe all the partitions obtained, up to a certain equivalence. There are $279936$ different such statements, they produce twenty different partitions (other than the standard one) whose sets of the first five columns are not permutations of each other, and only one of them (the one produced by the original statement of the problem we study) is equivalent to the standard partition. Finally, we construct infinitely many partitions equivalent to the standard one, and we give a possible generalization and a sample partition problem asking for the non-negative integers to be partitioned into four sets.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.00858

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zbMATH Keywords

partitions of integerspartitions of setscongruence modulo an integer

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Exact enumeration problems, generating functions (05A15) Partitions of sets (05A18) Combinatorial aspects of partitions of integers (05A17) Congruences; primitive roots; residue systems (11A07) Special sequences and polynomials (11B83) Elementary theory of partitions (11P81)

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