Sequentially congruent partitions and partitions into squares

TL;DR

This paper proves a bijection between sequentially congruent partitions and partitions into squares, revealing a surprising equivalence and extending to partitions into higher powers.

Contribution

It establishes a bijective proof connecting sequentially congruent partitions with partitions into squares, extending to higher powers.

Findings

Proves $p_{ ext{S}}(n) = p_{ ext{square}}(n)$ for all $n \

Extends the bijection to partitions into $k$th powers.

Provides a new combinatorial perspective on exotic partition classes.

Abstract

In recent work, M. Schneider and the first author studied a curious class of integer partitions called "sequentially congruent" partitions: the $m$th part is congruent to the $(m+1)$th part modulo $m$, with the smallest part congruent to zero modulo the number of parts. Let $p_{\mathcal S}(n)$ be the number of sequentially congruent partitions of $n,$ and let $p_{\square}(n)$ be the number of partitions of $n$ wherein all parts are squares. In this note we prove bijectively, for all $n\geq 1,$ that $p_{\mathcal S}(n) = p_{\square}(n).$ Our proof naturally extends to show other exotic classes of partitions of $n$ are in bijection with certain partitions of $n$ into $k$th powers.