NOTES FOR MATH 482 LECTURE 36

VIVEK DHAND

1. Partitions Let n 1 and 1 k n. Let p(n, k ) denote the number of ways to write n = a1 + a2 + + ak where a1 a2 ak 1. Dene: p(n) =
k=1 n

p(n, k )

We will refer to p(n) as the number of (unordered) partitions of n, and p(n, k ) as the number of partitions of n into k parts. For example: here are all the partition of 5: 5=4+1=3+2=3+1+1=2+2+1=2+1+1+1=1+1+1+1+1 We see that p(5, 1) = 1, p(5, 2) = 2, p(5, 3) = 2, p(5, 4) = 1, p(5, 5) = 1, and so p(5) = 7 We can draw a diagram representing a partition as follows: draw a sequence of columns of squares where the i-th column has ai squares. All the columns start at the same horizontal line, and extend downward. This is called a Young diagram or Ferrers diagram. Theorem. There is a recursive formula for p(n, k ): p(n, k ) = p(n 1, k 1) + p(n k, k ) Proof. Let n = a1 + + ak be a partition of n into k parts. There are two cases: either ak = 1 or ak 2. If ak = 1, then n 1 = a1 + + ak1 is a partition of n 1 into k 1 parts.

VIVEK DHAND

Conversely, if n 1 = b1 + . . . b k 1 is a partition of n 1 into k 1 parts, then n = b1 + + bk 1 + 1 is a partition of n into k parts where the last term is 1. If ak 2, then each term is at least 2 because a1 a2 ak . Now (a1 1) + . . . (ak 1) = n k is a partition of n k into k parts. Conversely, if n k = b1 + . . . b k is a partition of n k into k parts, then n = (b1 + 1) + + (bk + 1) is a partition of n into k parts where each term is at least 2.

Note that p(n, k ) = 0 if k > n. Also, p(n, 1) = 1 for all n. Our formula implies that: p(n, 2) = p(n 1, 1) + p(n 2, 2) = 1 + p(n 2, 2) We can derive an explicit formula for this sequence: n if n even 2 p(n, 2) = n1 if n odd 2 Given a partition of n = k i=1 ai , we can count the number of ones, the number of twos, etc. Let si be the number of times that i appears in the partition (a1 , . . . , ak ). This gives a sequence of non-negative integers (s1 , . . . , sn ) such that
n

isi = n
i=1

and

si = k
i=1

Conversely, given a sequence of non-negative integers (s1 , . . . , sn ) such that

n

isi = n
i=1

and

si = k
i=1

NOTES FOR MATH 482

LECTURE 36

we get a partition of n into k parts. Moreover, we can produce a new partition (b1 , . . . , br ) of n where b1 b2 br . Dene:
n

bi =
j =i

sj

Therefore, b1 = k, b2 = k s1 , b3 = k s1 s2 , etc. Let us check:

r r n n n

bi =
i=1 i=1 j =i

sj =
j =1 ij

sj =
j =1

jsj = n

The partition (b1 , . . . , br ) is called the conjugate partition of (a1 , . . . , ak ). Note that r = a1 . In terms of Young diagrams, the conjugate partition is obtained by interchanging the row and columns.