Lethbridge Number Theory and Combinatorics Seminar: Joshua Males

In his famous '86 paper, Andrews made several conjectures on the function σ(q) of Ramanujan, including that it has coefficients (which count certain partition-theoretic objects) whose sup grows in absolute value, and that it has infinitely many Fourier coefficients that vanish. These conjectures were famously proved by Andrews-Dyson-Hickerson in their '88 Invent. paper, and the function σ has been related to the arithmetic of ℤ[6‾√] by Cohen (and extensions by Zwegers), and is an important first example of quantum modular forms introduced by Zagier. A closer inspection of Andrews' '86 paper reveals several more functions that have been a little left in the shadow of their sibling σ , but which also exhibit extraordinary behaviour. In an ongoing project with Folsom, Rolen, and Storzer, we study the function v1(q) which is given by a Nahm-type sum and whose coefficients count certain differences of partition-theoretic objects. We give explanations of four conjectures made by Andrews on v1, which require a blend of novel and well-known techniques, and reveal that v1 should be intimately linked to the arithmetic of the imaginary quadratic field ℚ[−3‾‾‾√].