Proof of the Ballantine-Merca Conjecture and theta function identities modulo 2

arXiv2101.09846MaRDI QIDQ6358929FDOQ6358929

Authors: Letong Hong, Shengtong Zhang 

Publication date: 24 January 2021

Abstract: For positive integers $m$ we consider the theta functions $f_m(z):=su{m}_{mk+1extsquare}{q}^k$. Due to classical identities of Jacobi, it is known that ${\displaystyle }$f_4equiv f_6f_{12}pmod 2.${\displaystyle }$ Here we prove that the only triples $(a,b,c)$ for which $f_{a}equiv{f}_b{f}_{c}pmod2$ are of the form $(2q,4q,4q)$ or $(4q,4q,8q)$, where $q$ is any positive odd number, or belong to the following finite list ${\displaystyle }${(4,6,12),(6,8,24),(8,12,24),(10,12,60),(15,24,40),(16,24,48),(20,24,120),(21,24,168)}.${\displaystyle }$ The result is inspired by the Ballantine-Merca Conjecture on recurrence relations for the parity of the partition function $p(n)$, which we also prove here.

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