Abstract
The study of the well-known partition function p(n) counting the number of solutions to with integers has a long history in number theory and combinatorics. In this paper, we study a variant, namely partitions of integers into
with and some fixed . In particular, we prove a central limit theorem for the number of summands in such partitions, using the saddle-point method.
Keywords: Integer partitions, Partition function, Central limit theorem, Saddle-point method, Mellin transform
Introduction
For a positive integer n, let f(n) denote the number of unordered factorizations as products of integer factors greater than 1. Balasubramanian and Luca [1] considered the set
In order to provide an upper bound for , they had to analyse the number q(n) of partitions of n of the form
with integers , where denotes the integer part of x.
Chen and Li [2] proved a similar result, and Luca and Ralaivaosaona [19] refined the previous results to obtain the asymptotic formula
where
and A is the Glaisher–Kinkelin constant. Li and Chen [16, 17] extended the result to arbitrary powers not being of the form for a positive integer m. Finally, Li and Wu [18] considered the case of . They obtained a complete expansion along lines similar to the one in Tenenbaum, Wu and Li [25] as well as in Debruyne and Tenenbaum [6].
In the present paper, we take a different point of view. For fixed , we consider the distribution of the length of restricted -partitions. A restricted -partition of n is a representation of n of the form
with integers , and is called its length. We denote by the number of restricted partitions of length .
In the literature also unrestricted partitions are considered. We call a partition unrestricted if the ’s can be equal, i.e. . Analogously we denote by p(n) and the number of unrestricted partitions as well as the number of unrestricted partitions of length .
The asymptotic analysis of partition problems has its origin in the work of Hardy and Ramanujan, see for instance [13]. Their proof is based on properties of elliptic modular functions and later Rademacher [22] and followers could achieve full asymptotic expansions by this method. Ingham [15] developed a more elementary approach (comparable to our method) for the asymptotic analysis of certain partition problems. Here we also want to mention the work Chern [3], who obtained the asymptotics with explicit constants for the partition function in the case .
Erdős and Lehner [7] were among the first to consider the distribution of the length of a partition. In particular they considered the ratio , where is a function of n. The study of distinct parts was introduced by Wilf [26]. Goh and Schmutz [11] proved a central limit theorem for the distribution of part sizes. Their result was extended by Schmutz [24] to multivariate cases under the Meinardus’ scheme (cf. Meinardus [21]). Hwang [14] provided an extended version with weaker necessary conditions to obtain limit theorems for the number of summands in a random partition (restricted and unrestricted).
While Meinardus’ original scheme can handle Dirichlet generating functions with a single pole on the positive real axis, Granovsky and Stark [12] and Chern [3] adapted the method for multiple poles on the real axis. Madritsch and Wagner [20] considered sets with digital restrictions, leading to a Dirichlet generating function having equidistant poles along a vertical line in the complex plane, and proved a central limit theorem. Motivated by a question in Hwang’s paper [14] Ralaivaosaona [23] established a central limit theorem for partitions in primes. In the present paper, we use a similar method for the case of multiple poles on the real line.
Main Result
Let be a fixed real number. We let denote the set of partitions of a positive integer n into parts where each occurs at most once. These partitions are called (restricted) -partitions for short. Furthermore, let be the cardinality of the set . Finally, we let denote the subset of partitions whose length (number of summands) is k and is its cardinality.
In the present work, we consider the random variable counting the number of summands in a random -partition of n. The probability distribution of is given by . In order to obtain a central limit theorem for , we have to carefully analyse the associated bivariate generating function Q(z, u), which is given by
Furthermore, for a fixed integer , we let g(k) denote the number of integers satisfying , i.e.,
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with . Then the following lemma holds.
Lemma 1
With the notation above, we have
Proof
By the definition of g(k), we have for exactly g(k) different integers . Thus, it follows that
Furthermore, it holds that
Now we can state the main theorem of this work as follows.
Theorem 2
Let and let be the random variable counting the number of summands in a random restricted partition of n into -powers. Then is asymptotically normally distributed with mean and variance , i.e.,
uniformly for all x as . The mean and the variance are given by
2.1 |
and
2.2 |
where is the implicit solution of
Explicit formulæ for the occurring constants and are given in (4.12) and (4.13), respectively.
Finally, the tails of the distribution satisfy the exponential bounds
and the analogous inequalities also hold for .
This result fits into the series of other results on partitions in integers of the form with . In particular, if , then we have the classic case of partitions and Erdős and Lehner [7] showed that . For , not every integer has a representation of the form and there are gaps in the set . This led Hwang [14] to the result . Consequently, our result seems to be a natural extension of these results.
One of the main difficulties of the case lies in the special structure of the function g(k). In particular, if with being an integer, then the parts of the partitions are mth roots and g(k) is given by the polynomial
However, in the general case of , we have an additional error term (see (3.8)) of which no explicit form is known. This makes the analysis more involved.
Finally, we want to mention that a local version of this central limit theorem is the topic of a subsequent project. In particular, it seems that the above mentioned error term of the function g(k) needs further considerations in this case.
Main Idea, Outline and Tools for the Proof
The proof of our main theorem consists of analytic and probabilistic parts. In the analytic part, we use Mellin transforms and the saddle-point method. The probabilistic part is based on the use of Curtiss’ theorem for moment-generating functions. Before we give the details of the proof, this section is dedicated to give an overview of the main techniques and tools.
We first note that the central limit theorem for the random variable is equivalent to the fact that the normalized moment-generating function tends to for . Consequently, we will show this limit. Furthermore, the mentioned tail estimates can be obtained by the Chernoff bound.
Since is constant, we have . We recall that by Lemma 1, the probability-generating function is given by
In other words, it is sufficient for our purpose to obtain the coefficient of in Q(z, u). By Cauchy’s integral formula, we derive
A standard transformation yields for that
3.1 |
with
For the integral in (3.1), we use the well-known saddle-point method, also known as the method of steepest decent. The main application of this method is to obtain estimates for integrals of the form
for some suitable function g. We choose in order to split up the integral into two parts, one near the positive real axis and the other one for the rest, i.e.,
3.2 |
For the second integral, we compare the contribution of the integrand with the contribution from the real line, i.e., we estimate . This will contribute to the error term.
For the first integral in (3.2), we use a third order Taylor expansion of around , which is
3.3 |
Now we choose r such that the first derivative vanishes. Then the remaining integral is given by
Now the integrand is that of a Gaussian integral and so we add the missing part. The Gaussian integral contributes to the main part, and we need to analyse and in order to show that all our transformations and estimates are valid. For more details on the saddle-point method, we refer the interested reader to Flajolet and Sedgewick [10, Chapter VIII].
The estimates for and are based on singular analysis using the well-known Mellin transform. The Mellin transform of a function h is defined by
The most important property for our considerations is the so called rescaling rule, which is given by
see [8, Theorem 1]. This provides a link between a generating function and its Dirichlet generating function. For a detailed account on this integral transform, we refer the interested reader to the work of Flajolet, Gourdon and Dumas [8] and to the work of Flajolet, Grabner, Kirschenhofer, Prodinger and Tichy [9].
Let . Throughout the rest of our paper we assume and by “uniformly in u” we always mean “uniformly as ”. Then in our case we have for the Mellin transform of with respect to that
where
3.4 |
is the associated Dirichlet series and
3.5 |
is the Mellin transform of .
The central advantage of the Mellin transform is not necessarily the transformation itself but moreover the converse mapping, where we consider the singularities of the transformed function providing the asymptotic expansion.
Theorem 3
[Converse Mapping [8, Theorem 4]] Let f(x) be continuous in with Mellin transform having a nonempty fundamental strip . Assume that admits a meromorphic continuation to the strip for some with a finite number of poles there, and is analytic on . Assume also that there exists a real number such that
3.6 |
with as in . If admits the singular expansion
3.7 |
for , then an asymptotic expansion of f(x) at 0 is given by
Thus in our case we have to consider the singularities of the associated Dirichlet series D(s) and the function Y(s, u). On the one hand we note that
![]() |
3.8 |
where m is the integer such that . Plugging this into (3.4) yields
where has no pole with and
is the Riemann zeta function. On the other hand
where
are the polylogarithm and the Gamma function, respectively.
Now in order to apply converse mapping, we need to show that (3.6) as well as (3.7) are both fulfilled for these three functions. Stirling’s formula yields for the Gamma function that
for and . Furthermore, the Riemann zeta function satisfies
for suitable , and . For the polylogarithm we follow the ideas of Flajolet and Sedgewick [10, VI.8]. This is a good application of the converse mapping, so we want to reproduce it here: First of all, let and define the function
This is a harmonic sum and so we apply Mellin transform theory. The Mellin transform of satisfies
for . The Gamma function has simple poles at the negative integers and has a simple pole at . Thus, the application of converse mapping (Theorem 3) yields
with
Using these estimates in the converse mapping, we obtain an asymptotic formula for of the form
Recall that
Using implicit differentiation, we obtain a Taylor expansion for the moment-generating function, which yields
proving the central limit theorem for . Finally, we will use the Chernoff bound for the tail estimates.
Proof of the Main Result
To prove Theorem 2, we apply the method we have outlined in the previous section. As indicated above, we choose such that the first derivative in (3.3) vanishes, i.e.,
Since the sum is decreasing in r, we see that this equation has a unique solution, which is the saddle point. The main value of the integral in (3.1) lies around the positive real axis. We set and split the integral into two ranges, namely into
where
and
Estimate of
We start our considerations with the central integral and show the following lemma on its asymptotic behavior.
Lemma 4
Let . Then we have
with
uniformly in u.
Recall that by “uniformly in u” we always mean “uniformly as ”.
Proof
It holds that
4.1 |
Then from (3.8) we derive
4.2 |
Note that in (4.2) the involved quantities may be complex numbers and the -notation in this case means that there is a constant (only depending on ) such that .
For , we analogously obtain
4.3 |
All infinite sums in (4.3) are of the form
with . Let denote the Mellin transform of with respect to , then is given by
The function converges for and its only pole in the range is that of at . The Riemann zeta function and the polylogarithm grow only polynomially, whereas the Gamma function decreases exponentially on every vertical line in the complex plane; see Section 3. Thus, we can apply converse mapping (Theorem 3) and obtain
By plugging everything into (4.3), we obtain
4.4 |
For the saddle point n, this results in
4.5 |
whereas the second derivative is given by
For the third derivative occurring in the error term in (4.1), we have
We estimate this expression following [20]: Let for some constant and write for short. We split the sum into two parts, according to whether or not. For the sum over large k, we obtain
4.6 |
For the remaining sum we note that
Therefore, we get
Using the Mellin transform and converse mapping, this results in
By combining this with (4.6), we obtain
for .
All in all, this leads to the expansion
For the integral , we thus obtain
4.7 |
Finally, we change the integral to a Gaussian integral and get
4.8 |
Estimate of
Next, we prove the following asymptotic upper bound for the integral .
Lemma 5
For , it holds that
where is a constant uniformly in u.
For the proof of this estimate, we need the following two lemmas. The first lemma provides an upper bound for some exponential that will occur later on, whereas the second one says that is small compared to . These results are the main ingredients for the proof of Lemma 5.
Lemma 6
(Li–Chen [17, Lemma 2.5]) Let . For , we have
where is a positive constant depending only on .
Lemma 7
For any real y with , we derive
for some constant depending only on .
Proof
First of all, we note that
![]() |
By the mean value theorem, there exists such that
which leads to
4.9 |
see also Li and Chen [17, Proof of Lemma 2.6]. Moreover, we have
Using this, it holds that
where the last estimate follows by Lemma 6.
Following the lines of Li and Chen [17] again, we further have
for . Since
and , we find
This further implies
This lower bound results in
and finally
for sufficiently large n. So we consequently obtain
completing the proof.
Proof of Lemma 5
By the definition of , it holds that
An application of Lemma 7 thus yields
4.10 |
for a certain constant uniformly in u, as stated.
Estimate of and Moment-Generating Function
After estimating the main term and the contribution away from the real axis, we put (4.8) and (4.10) together and get
The plan for the last part of the proof is to consider the moment-generating function using this asymptotic expansion. This will prove the central limit theorem. Finally, at the end of this section, we use the Chernoff bound in order to obtain the desired tail estimates.
Now we consider the moment-generating function for the random variable (the number of summands in a random partition of n). To this end, let , where t is real and and are the mean and the standard deviation as defined in (2.1) and (2.2), respectively. Then the following estimate holds.
Lemma 8
For bounded t, it holds that
as .
Proof
First of all, we observe that
4.11 |
Instead of representing the function with respect to u, we interpret as a function of n and u and use implicit differentiation on (4.5) as in Madritsch and Wagner [20], and obtain
and similarly
as well as
We now need estimates for the partial derivatives of f. Estimates for partial derivatives with respect to follow from our considerations in Section 4.1. For derivatives with respect to u, we take the derivative of the corresponding Mellin transform and then obtain the estimate via converse mapping again. Let us exemplarily illustrate this approach for : By (4.4), is given by
The Mellin transform of is given by
Taking the derivative of with respect to u thus yields
Consequently, converse mapping implies for that
In a similar manner, we determine estimates for the other partial derivatives and obtain
From these estimates it follows that uniformly in u. Expanding and around yields
and
respectively.
By plugging these expansions into the exponential of (4.11), we get
where we have written for short. Recalling that and that , we can simplify the last expression in order to obtain
In a similar way we get that
Thus, we obtain the following asymptotic formula for the moment-generating function in (4.11):
Recall that we chose and in (2.1) and (2.2) such that
By definition of and in (2.1) and (2.2), respectively, we deduce that
for bounded t.
By the previous lemma and Curtiss’ theorem [5], it follows that the distribution of is indeed asymptotically normal. For the remaining parts, we first show that the two asymptotic formulas in (2.1) and (2.2) hold for and , respectively. In particular, we show the existence of two positive constants and such that
Our Mellin transform techniques from above show that
and
We may use the identity
to relate these formulas to the Riemann zeta function. Thus we get
4.12 |
and
4.13 |
From (4.5) we get by Lagrange inversion that
and substituting this in (4.12) and (4.13), respectively, yields
We still need to show that and are both positive. For we note that every term is positive and therefore the whole sum is positive. For it is not so obvious that does not vanish identically. Therefore we consider the numerator and denominator of separately. For the numerator we get
where we have written for short. Let be an arbitrary constant. Then we can estimate this by
where we have used that by (4.9). For the denominator we already have shown that it is . Thus we have and .
For the asymptotic equivalences
we apply Hwang’s method used in the proof of Theorem 1 in [14].
Finally we turn our attention to the tails. We again follow Hwang [14] and obtain for that
by the Chernoff bound. For the original inequality of Chernoff we refer to [4] and we remark here that Herman Chernoff has celebrated his 100 anniversary on July 1, 2023.
Therefore, let . Then for we set and obtain
For we set yielding
We can estimate the probability in a similar way.
Acknowledgements
The first author is supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), project W 1230. The second author is supported by project ANR-18-CE40-0018 funded by the French National Research Agency. The third author is supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), project F 5510-N26 within the Special Research Area “Quasi-Monte Carlo Methods: Theory and Applications” and project I 4406-N. Major parts of the present paper were established when the first author was visiting the Institut Élie Cartan at the Université de Lorraine, France. He thanks the institution for its hospitality. Finally, the authors thank the reviewers for carefully reading the manuscript and for the helpful suggestions. Their valuable comments improved the quality of the article.
Funding
Open access funding provided by Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
Footnotes
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