# Nearly Equal Distributions of the Rank and the Crank of Partitions

## TL;DR

This paper proves the near-equality of the distributions of rank and crank of partitions, confirms a conjecture related to the spt-function, and introduces a new combinatorial interpretation of ospt(n).

## Contribution

It establishes the inequality between rank and crank distributions for partitions and introduces a re-ordering that explains their nearly equal distributions.

## Key findings

- Proved the inequality $N( ext{≤}m,n) ext{≤} M( ext{≤}m,n)$ for $m<0$, $n ext{≥}1$.
- Defined a re-ordering $ au_n$ that demonstrates the nearly equal distribution of rank and crank.
- Provided a new combinatorial interpretation of ospt(n) leading to an upper bound.

## Abstract

Let $N(\leq m,n)$ denote the number of partitions of $n$ with rank not greater than $m$, and let $M(\leq m,n)$ denote the number of partitions of $n$ with crank not greater than $m$. Bringmann and Mahlburg observed that $N(\leq m,n)\leq M(\leq m,n)\leq N(\leq m+1,n)$ for $m<0$ and $1\leq n\leq 100$. They also pointed out that these inequalities can be restated as the existence of a re-ordering $\tau_n$ on the set of partitions of $n$ such that $|\text{crank}(\lambda)|-|\text{rank}(\tau_n(\lambda))|=0$ or $1$ for all partitions $\lambda$ of $n$, that is, the rank and the crank are nearly equal distributions over partitions of $n$. In the study of the spt-function, Andrews, Dyson and Rhoades proposed a conjecture on the unimodality of the spt-crank, and they showed that this conjecture is equivalent to the inequality $N(\leq m,n)\leq M(\leq m,n)$ for $m<0$ and $n\geq 1$. We proved this conjecture by combiantorial arguments. In this paper, we prove the inequality $N(\leq m,n)\leq M(\leq m,n)$ for $m<0$ and $n\geq 1$. Furthermore, we define a re-ordering $\tau_n$ of the partitions $\lambda$ of $n$ and show that this re-ordering $\tau_n$ leads to the nearly equal distribution of the rank and the crank. Using the re-ordering $\tau_n$, we give a new combinatorial interpretation of the function ospt$(n)$ defined by Andrews, Chan and Kim, which immediately leads to an upper bound for $ospt(n)$ due to Chan and Mao.