Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Mathematics

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

Our main results are asymptotic zero-one laws satisfied by the diagrams of unimodal sequences of positive integers. These diagrams consist of columns of squares in the plane; the upper boundary is called the shape. For various types of unimodal sequences, we show that, as the number of squares tends to infinity, 100% of shapes are near a certain curve---that is, there is a single limit shape. Similar phenomena have been well-studied for integer partitions, but several technical difficulties arise in the extension of such asymptotic statistical laws to unimodal sequences. We develop a widely applicable method for obtaining these limit shapes, based in part on a method of Petrov. We also mention a few notable corollaries---for example, we obtain a limit shape for so-called "overpartitions'' by a simple DeSalvo-Pak-type transfer.

To aid in the proof of these limit shapes, we prove an asymptotic formula for the number of partitions of the integer n into distinct parts where the largest part is at most t times the square root of n for fixed t. Our method follows a probabilistic approach of Romik, who gave a simpler proof of Szekeres' asymptotic formula for distinct parts partitions when instead the number of parts is bounded by t times the square root of n. The probabilistic approach is equivalent to a circle method/saddle-point method calculation, but it makes some of the steps more intuitive and even predicts the shape of the asymptotic formula, to some degree.

Finally, motivated by certain problems concerning Rogers-Ramanujan-type identities, we give combinatorial proofs of three families of inequalities among certain types of integer partitions.

Date

5-8-2020

Committee Chair

Mahlburg, Karl

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.5251

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