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Partition Function Q Congruences


PartitionsQOdd

Odd values of Q(n) are 1, 1, 3, 5, 27, 89, 165, 585, ... (OEIS A051044), and occur with ever decreasing frequency as n becomes large (unlike P(n), for which the fraction of odd values remains roughly 50%). This follows from the pentagonal number theorem which gives

G(x)=product_(n=1)^(infty)(1+x^n) (mod 2)
(1)
=product_(n=1)^(infty)(1-x^n) (mod 2)
(2)
=sum_(n=-infty)^(infty)x^((3n^2+n)/2) (mod 2)
(3)

(Gordon and Ono 1997), so Q(n) is odd iff n is of the form k(3k+/-1)/2, i.e., 1, 5, 12, 22, 35, ... or 2, 7, 15, 26, 40, ....

The values of n for which Q(n) is prime are 3, 4, 5, 7, 22, 70, 100, 495, 1247, 2072, 320397, ... (OEIS A035359), with no others for n<=3015000 (Weisstein, May 6, 2000). These values correspond to 2, 2, 3, 5, 89, 29927, 444793, 602644050950309, ... (OEIS A051005). It is not known if Q(n) is infinitely often prime, but Gordon and Ono (1997) proved that it is "almost always" divisible by any given power of 2 (1997).

Gordon and Hughes (1981) showed that

 Q(n)=0 (mod 5^a) if 24n=-1 (mod 5^(2a+1))
(4)

and

 Q(n)=49n+2 (mod lambda_bQ(n))7^b if 24n=-1 (mod 7^b),
(5)

where lambda_b is an integer depending only on b.


See also

Partition Function P, Partition Function P Congruences, Partition Function Q

Related Wolfram sites

http://functions.wolfram.com/IntegerFunctions/PartitionsQ/

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References

Gordon, B. and Hughes, K. "Ramanujan Congruences for q(n)." In Analytic Number Theory, Proceedings of the Conference Held at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa., May 12-15, 1980 (Ed. M. I. Knopp). New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 333-359, 1981.Gordon, B. and Ono, K. "Divisibility of Certain Partition Functions by Powers of Primes." Ramanujan J. 1, 25-34, 1997.Sloane, N. J. A. Sequences A035359, A051005, and A051044 in "The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences."

Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha

Partition Function Q Congruences

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Partition Function Q Congruences." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/PartitionFunctionQCongruences.html

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