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 Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Advances in Mathematics
www.elsevier.com/locate/aim

Truncated Hecke-Rogers type series ✩

Chun Wang a,b , Ae Ja Yee c,∗
a
Department of Mathematics, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234,
PR China
b
Department of Mathematics, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241,
PR China
c
Department of Mathematics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park,
PA 16802, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The recent work of George Andrews and Mircea Merca on
Received 11 May 2018 the truncated version of Euler’s pentagonal number theorem
Received in revised form 19 has opened up a new study on truncated theta series. Since
September 2019
then several papers on the topic have followed. The main
Accepted 2 February 2020
Available online 13 February 2020 purpose of this paper is to generalize the study to Hecke-
Communicated by George Andrews Rogers type double series, which are associated with some
interesting partition functions. Our proofs heavily rely on
MSC: a formula from the work of Zhi-Guo Liu on the q-partial
primary 11P81 differential equations and q-series.
secondary 05A17 © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Theta functions
Truncated series
Euler’s pentagonal number theorem
Gauss’s identities

✩
The first author was partially supported by the outstanding doctoral dissertation cultivation plan of
action (No. YB2016028) from East China Normal University. The second author was partially supported
by a grant (#280903) from the Simons Foundation.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: wangchunmath@outlook.com (C. Wang), auy2@psu.edu (A.J. Yee).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aim.2020.107051
0001-8708/© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
2 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051

1. Introduction

Recently, Andrews and Merca investigated the truncated version of the series of
Euler [4]. Their work has inspired several mathematicians to work on the topic
[5,6,10,13,14,16,20,26,27]. The main purpose of this paper is to generalize the study
to Hecke-Rogers type double series.
In [4], Andrews and Merca considered Euler’s pentagonal number theorem [1, Eq.
(1.3.1)]:

∞
 ∞

(1 − q n ) = (−1)n q n(3n−1)/2 , (1)
n=1 n=−∞

and they showed that its truncated series yields a family of inequalities for the partition
function p(n). Here, p(n) counts the number of partitions of n for n ≥ 0. Subsequently,
in [13], Guo and Zeng considered the well-known identities of Gauss [1, Eqs. (2.2.12),
(2.2.13)]:

∞ ∞
(1 − q n )  2

n)
= (−1)n q n (1 − q 2n+1 ), (2)
n=1
(1 + q n=0

∞ ∞
(1 − q 2n )
2n−1 )
= (−1)n q n(2n+1) (1 − q 2n+1 ), (3)
n=1
(1 + q n=0

and they derived analogous results for the overpartition function p(n) and the partition
function pod (n), where p(n) counts the number of overpartitions of n and pod (n) counts
the number of partitions of n with distinct odd parts. In both [4] and [13], further
inequalities for various partition functions are proposed as conjectures, which were settled
by Mao [20] and Yee [27].
An infinite series is said to be lacunary if its coefficients cn are 0 for almost all values
of n, for instance the three classical theta series in (1), (2), and (3), which are special
cases of Jacobi’s triple product identity [1]:

∞
 ∞

(1 − z −1 q n−1 )(1 − zq n )(1 − q n ) = (−z)n q n(n+1)/2 .
n=1 n=−∞

Another instance is Watson’s quintuple product identity [1]:

∞

(1 − z −1 q n−1 )(1 − zq n )(1 − q n )(1 − z −2 q 2n−1 )(1 − z 2 q 2n−1 )
n=1
∞

= (z 3n − z −3n−1 )q n(3n+1)/2 .
n=−∞
 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051 3

In [10], Chan, Ho and Mao obtained a truncated theorem from the quintuple product
identity, and in [26], Wang and Yee reproved the truncated theorem for the triple prod-
uct identity, which was proved by Mao [20] and Yee [27], independently. In [14], using
combinatorial arguments, He, Ji, and Zang reproved a conjecture of Guo and Zeng on a
truncated theorem for an identity of Jacobi, which was first proved by Mao [20]. In [6,16],
Burnette and Kolitsch gave combinatorial interpretations of the truncated pentagonal
number theorem related to (1).
In addition to those series mentioned above, in the literature, there exists a plethora
of such lacunary series that are very interesting from the partition theory point of view
(see [2,3,11,21,22]). For instance,

∞
 ∞
 2
−3m2 )/2+(n+m)/2
(1 − q n )2 = (−1)n+m q (n , (4)
n=1 n,m=−∞
n≥2|m|

which was studied by Hecke [15, p. 425, Eq. (7)] (or [3, Eq. (1.2)]) and Rogers [22, p.
323], is closely related to a partition function. Namely, the reciprocal of the left hand
side of (4) is the generating function of partition pairs (or bi-partitions).
In this paper, motivated by the works of Andrews-Merca [4,5] and Guo-Zeng [13], we
study truncated versions of some lacunary series including (4).
Throughout the paper, we adopt the following q-series notation:

∞

(a; q)∞ := (1 − aq n ) for |q| < 1,
n=0

(a; q)∞
(a; q)n := for any integer n.
(aq n ; q)∞

We sometimes use the following compressed notation:

(a1 , a2 , . . . , ar ; q)∞ := (a1 ; q)∞ (a2 ; q)∞ · · · (ar ; q)∞ ,

(a1 , a2 , . . . , ar ; q)n := (a1 ; q)n (a2 ; q)n · · · (ar ; q)n .

In Section 3, we consider the following three identities:

∞
 
n
(q; q)2∞ = q n(2n+1) (1 − q 2n+1 ) (−1)j q −j(3j+1)/2 , (5)
n=0 j=−n

∞ n
(q; q)2∞
(−1)j q −j ,
2
= q n(3n+1)/2 (1 − q 2n+1 ) (6)
(−q; q)∞ n=0 j=−n

∞ n
(q 2 ; q 2 )2∞
= q n(3n+2)
(1 − q 2n+1
) (−1)j q −j(2j+1) , (7)
(−q; q 2 )∞ n=0 j=−n
4 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051

where (5), (6), and (7) can be found in [3, Eq. (5.1)], [3, Eq. (5.15)], and [17, Eq. (7.17)],
respectively. We note that one can show with some series manipulations that the right
hand sides of (4) and (5) are equal.
Let pp(n) count the number of pairs of partitions (λ, μ), where both λ and μ are
ordinary partitions such that the sum of all the parts of λ and μ equals n. The recip-
rocal of the infinite product on the left hand side of (5) is the generating function for
pp(n). By taking the truncated series on the right hand side of (5), we derive the fol-
lowing theorem that is reminiscent of the results of Andrews-Merca [4,5] and Guo-Zeng
[13].

Theorem 1.1. For m ≥ 0,

1 m n
q n(2n+1)
(1 − q 2n+1
) (−1)j q −j(3j+1)/2
(q; q)2∞ n=0 j=−n
∞
 
n  
q n+(m+1)i n−1
= 1 + (−1)m q m(m+1)/2 , (8)
(q; q)i (q; q)n−i m
n=m+1 i=0

where

     (q;q)N
N N (q;q)M (q;q)N −M , if 0 ≤ M ≤ N,
= :=
M M q 0, otherwise.

As a consequence of Theorem 1.1, we have the following positivity theorem:

Theorem 1.2. For any N ≥ 0,


m  
n
 j(3j + 1)
(−1)m (−1)j pp N − n(2n + 1) +
n=0 j=−n
2

 j(3j + 1)
− pp N − (n + 1)(2n + 1) + ≥ 0.
2

Similarly, by taking the truncated series on the right hand sides of (6) and (7), we get
the following results:

Theorem 1.3. For m ≥ 0,

(−q; q)∞  
m n
(−1)j q −j
2

2
(1 − q 2n+1 n(3n+1)/2
)q
(q; q)∞ n=0 j=−n

∞ n  
(−1; q)i q (m+2)(n−i)+i n − 1
= 1 + (−1)m q m(m+1)/2 . (9)
(q; q)i (q; q)n−i m
n=m+1 i=0
 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051 5

Theorem 1.4. For m ≥ 0,

(−q; q 2 )∞  
m n
(1 − q 2n+1 3n2 +2n
)q (−1)j q −j(2j+1)
(q 2 ; q 2 )2∞ n=0 j=−n

∞ n  
m m(m+1) (−q; q 2 )i q 2(m+2)(n−i)+2i n − 1
= 1 + (−1) q . (10)
(q 2 ; q 2 )i (q 2 ; q 2 )n−i m q2
n=m+1 i=0

Let us define pp(n) to be the number of pairs (λ, μ), where λ is a partition and μ is an
overpartition, and pe pod (n) to be the number of pairs (λ, μ), where λ is a partition into
even parts only and μ is a partition whose odd parts are distinct. Then the reciprocals of
the infinite products in (6) and (7) are the generating functions of pp(n) and pe pod (n),
respectively. From Theorems 1.3 and 1.4, we can deduce families of inequalities for these
partition functions that are analogous to Theorem 1.2 as follows.

Theorem 1.5. For any N ≥ 0,


m  
n
 n(3n + 1)  (n + 1)(3n + 2)
(−1) m
(−1)j
pp N − + j 2 − pp N − + j2 ≥ 0.
n=0 j=−n
2 2

Theorem 1.6. For any N ≥ 0,


m  
n
 j(j + 1)
(−1) m
(−1) j
pe pod N − n(3n + 2) +
n=0 j=−n
2
 j(j + 1)
− pe pod N − (n + 1)(3n + 1) + ≥ 0.
2

In [13], the truncated series Guo and Zeng considered for overpartitions, namely the
Gauss identity in (2), is


m
2
1+2 (−1)n q n ,
n=1

and they showed that

 
m
(−1)m p(n) + 2 (−1)j p(n − j 2 ) ≥ 0.
j=1

At the end of their paper, they conjectured that

 
m
(−1)m p(n) + 2 (−1)j p(n − j 2 ) − p(n − (m + 1)2 ) ≥ 0, (11)
j=1
6 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051

which is proven by Mao [20] and Yee [27]. However, both of their proofs are different
from those of Andrews-Merca and Guo-Zeng. In Section 4, we prove (11) in a way similar
to those of Andrews-Merca and Guo-Zeng. Namely, we derive the following truncated
theorem on overpartitions, from which (11) can be easily deduced.

Theorem 1.7. For m ≥ 0,

(−q; q)∞ 
m
2
(−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n
(q; q)∞ n=0
∞  
m −m−1 (−q; q)m+1 (−1; q)n−m−1 q (m+2)n n − 1
= 1 + (−1) q .
(q; q)n m
n=m+1

Theorem 1.7 is analogous to the following two theorems.

Theorem 1.8 (Andrews and Merca [4]). For m ≥ 0

m ∞  
1 q (m+2)n n − 1
(−1) (1 − q
n 2n+1 n(3n+1)/2
)q m m(m+1)/2
= 1 + (−1) q .
(q; q)∞ n=0 (q; q)n m
n=m+1

Theorem 1.9 (Guo and Zeng [13]). For m ≥ 0,

(−q; q 2 )∞ 
m
(−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(2n+1)
(q 2 ; q 2 )∞ n=0
∞  
(−q; q 2 )m+1 (−q; q 2 )n−m−1 q 2(m+2)n n − 1
= 1 + (−1)m q −m−1 .
(q 2 ; q 2 )n m q2
n=m+1

In [5], Andrews and Merca provided a unified treatment of Theorems 1.8 and 1.9 by
showing that they are instances of the Rogers-Fine identity [23, p. 15]. We note that
we can also prove Theorems 1.8 and 1.9 in the same way as Theorem 1.7 adopting our
method presented in this paper. However, as their proofs are very similar to the proof
of Theorem 1.7, we will only give a sketch omitting the details in Section 4.
In Section 5, we will present another instance of truncated series identities, which is
related to cubic partitions. Cubic partitions are pairs of partitions (λ, μ), where λ is an
ordinary partition and μ is a partition into even parts only. Let us denote the number
of such pairs by ppe (n). This partition function was introduced and studied in depth by
H.-C. Chan in [7–9], who call such partition pairs cubic partitions since the partition
function arises from the study of Ramanujan’s cubic continued fraction.
Lastly, it should be noted that while Andrews and Merca established their truncated
pentagonal number theorem by generalizing two formulas of Shanks [24,25], the essential
tool for our proofs is an amazing formula of Liu [18, Theorem 9.2], which is recalled in
the next section.
 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051 7

2. Preliminaries

In this section, we recall the standard results from the literature which will be used
in the sequel.
For |z| < 1, the q-binomial theorem is given by [1, p. 17, Eq. (2.2.1)]

∞
(a; q)n z n (az; q)∞
= . (12)
n=0
(q; q)n (z; q)∞

The following two special cases of (12) are due to Euler [1, p. 19, Eqs. (2.2.5) and (2.2.6)]:

∞
 zn 1
= , (13)
n=0
(q; q)n (z; q)∞
∞
(−1)n q n(n+1)/2
= (q; q)∞ . (14)
n=0
(q; q)n

Also, when a = q −m for any nonnegative integer m, (12) yields

∞
(q −m ; q)n z n
= (zq −m ; q)m . (15)
n=0
(q; q)n

In addition, we will need the q-Chu-Vandermonde sums [12, p. 354, Eq. (II.6)] in later
sections:

q −n , a (c/a; q)n n
2 φ1 ; q, q = a , (16)
c (c; q)n

where
 ∞
a1 , a2 , . . . , ar+1 (a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . , ar+1 ; q)n n
r+1 φr ; q, z := z .
b1 , b2 , . . . , br (q, b1 , b2 , . . . , br ; q)n
n=0

We now recall the q-series expansion formula of Liu [18, Theorem 9.2]:

(αq, αab/q; q)m  (q −m , q/a, q/b; q)n q n

m
An
(αa, αb; q)m n=0 (q 2 /αabq m ; q)n
m
(1 − αq 2n )(q −m , α, q/a, q/b; q)n (αabq m−1 )n  −n
n
= (q , αq n ; q)k q k Ak , (17)
n=0
(1 − α)(q, αq m+1 , αa, αb; q)
n
k=0

where m is a nonnegative integer and {An } is an arbitrary complex sequence. In the

next lemma, a special case of Liu’s formula (17) will be treated.
8 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051

Lemma 2.1. For m ≥ 0,


m
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2 (q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1 An
n=0


m 
n
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(n−1)/2 (q −n , q n+1 ; q)k q k Ak . (18)
n=0 k=0

Proof. We first replace a by α−1 q −m in (17) to get

(αq, q 2 /b; q)m (b/q)m  (q −m , αq 1+m , q/b; q)n q n

m
An
(q, αb; q)m n=0
(q 2 /b; q)n
m
(1 − αq 2n )(α, q/b; q)n (b/q)n  −n
n
= (q , αq n ; q)k q k Ak .
n=0
(1 − α)(q, αb; q)n
k=0

By letting α = q, b → 0 in the above identity, we can see Lemma 2.1 follows as de-
sired. 

3. New truncated series identities

In this section, we will prove Theorems 1.1, 1.3, and 1.4. We first need the following
lemma.

Lemma 3.1. For m ≥ 0,


m
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2 (q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
n=0


m 
n
= q n(2n+1) (1 − q 2n+1 ) (−1)j q −j(3j+1)/2 , (19)
n=0 j=−n

m
(q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
m m(m+1)/2
(−1) q
n=0
(−q; q)n

m 
n
(−1)j q −j ,
2
= q n(3n+1)/2 (1 − q 2n+1 ) (20)
n=0 j=−n

m
(q −2m ; q 2 )n (q 2m+2 ; q 2 )n+1
(−1)m q m(m+1)
n=0
(−q; q 2 )n+1

m 
n
= q n(3n+2) (1 − q 2n+1 ) (−1)j q −j(2j+1) . (21)
n=0 j=−n
 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051 9

Proof. We replace An by (cq; q)−1

n in (18) to get

m
(q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2
n=0
(cq; q)n

m 
n
(q −n , q n+1 ; q)k q k
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(n−1)/2 .
n=0
(cq; q)k
k=0

Recall the following formula of Andrews [1, p. 118] (or see [19, Lemma 4.1]):


n
(q −n , αq n ; q)k q k 2 (q; q)n  (c; q)j α−j q j(1−n)
n
= αn q n ,
(cq; q)k (cq; q)n j=0 (q; q)j
k=0

from which it follows that

m
(q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
m m(m+1)/2
(−1) q
n=0
(cq; q)n

m
(q; q)n  (c; q)j q −nj
n
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(3n+1)/2 . (22)
n=0
(cq; q)n j=0 (q; q)j

For (19), we replace c by 0 in (22). Then we get


m
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2 (q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
n=0

m n
q −nj
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(3n+1)/2 (q; q)n
n=0 j=0
(q; q)j


m 
n
= (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(2n+1) (−1)j q −j(3j+1)/2 ,
n=0 j=−n

where for the last equality, we use the following identity

n
q −nj q n(n+1)/2 
n
= (−1)n (−1)j q −j(3j+1)/2
j=0
(q; q)j (q; q)n j=−n

from [3, Eq. (5.11)] or [17, Eq. (7.10)].

For (20), we replace c by −1 in (22). Then we get

m
(q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2
n=0
(−q; q)n

m
(q; q)n  (−1; q)j q −nj
n
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(3n+1)/2
n=0
(−q; q)n j=0 (q; q)j
10 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051


m 
n
(−1)j q −j ,
2
= (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(3n+1)/2
n=0 j=−n

where for the last equality, we used the following identity


n
(−1; q)j q −nj (−q; q)n 
n
(−1)j q −j
2
= (−1)n
j=0
(q; q)j (q; q)n j=−n

from [3, Eq. (5.7)] or [17, Eq. (7.5)].

Lastly, for (21), we first replace q by q 2 and then replace c by q in (22) to get

2 m
(q −2m ; q 2 )n (q 2+2m ; q 2 )n+1
(−1)m q m +m

n=0
(q 3 ; q 2 )n

m
; q 2 )n  (q; q 2 )j q −(2j+1)n
2 n
2
+2n (q
= (−1)n (1 − q 4n+2 )q 3n
n=0
(q 3 ; q 2 )n j=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )j


m 2
; q 2 )n (q; q 2 )n  −j(j+1)/2
2n
2
+2n (q
= (−1)n (1 − q 4n+2 )q 3n q
n=0
(q ; q 2 )n
3 (q 2 ; q 2 )n j=0


m 
2n
q −j(j+1)/2
2
= (1 − q) (−1)n (1 + q 2n+1 )q 3n +2n

n=0 j=0


m 
n
q −j(2j+1) ,
2
= (1 − q) (−1)n (1 + q 2n+1 )q 3n +2n

n=0 j=−n

where for the second equality, we use the following identity


n
(q; q 2 )j q −n(2j+1) (q; q 2 )n  −j(j+1)/2
2n
= q
j=0
(q 2 ; q 2 )j (q 2 ; q 2 )n j=0

from [3, Eq. (5.9)] or [17, Eq. (7.15)]. Dividing both sides by 1 − q and then replacing q
by −q, we complete the proof of (21). 

The limiting case of Lemma 3.1 is given in the next theorem.

Theorem 3.2. We have

∞
 
n
(q; q)2∞ = q n(2n+1) (1 − q 2n+1 ) (−1)j q −j(3j+1)/2 , (23)
n=0 j=−n

∞ n
(q; q)2∞
(−1)j q −j ,
2
= q n(3n+1)/2 (1 − q 2n+1 ) (24)
(−q; q)∞ n=0 j=−n
 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051 11

∞ n
(q 2 ; q 2 )2∞
= q n(3n+2)
(1 − q 2n+1
) (−1)j q −j(2j+1) . (25)
(−q; q 2 )∞ n=0 j=−n

Proof. For (23), we first rewrite the left hand side of (19) as


m
(−1) qm m(m+1)/2
(q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
n=0

m
= (−1)m q m(m+1)/2 (−1)n q −mn+n(n−1)/2 (q m−n+1 ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
n=0

m
(q; q)m+n+1
= (−1)m−n q (m−n)(m−n+1)/2
n=0
(q; q)m−n

m
(q; q)2m−n+1
= (−1)n q n(n+1)/2 .
n=0
(q; q)n

So, (19) becomes


m
(q; q)2m−n+1 m n
(−1)n q n(n+1)/2 = q n(2n+1) (1 − q 2n+1 ) (−1)j q −j(3j+1)/2 .
n=0
(q; q)n n=0 j=−n

We then let m → ∞ to get

∞
 ∞ n
1
(q; q)∞ (−1) qn n(n+1)/2
= q n(2n+1)
(1 − q 2n+1
) (−1)j q −j(3j+1)/2 ,
n=0
(q; q)n n=0 j=−n

from which with (14), (19) follows as desired.

The rest can be proved similarly, so we omit the details. 

3.1. Proof of Theorem 1.1

By (19), the left hand side of (8) becomes

1 m n
q n(2n+1)
(1 − q 2n+1
) (−1)j q −j(3j+1)/2
(q; q)2∞ n=0 j=−n

(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  −m
m
= (q ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
(q; q)2∞ n=0

(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  −m
m
= (q ; q)n (q; q)m+n+1
(q; q)2∞ (q; q)m n=0

(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n

m
1
= m+n+2 ; q) (q n+1 ; q)
(q; q)m n=0
(q; q)n (q ∞ ∞
12 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051

∞ ∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n  q (m+n+2)i  q (n+1)j
m
= (by (13))
(q; q)m n=0
(q; q)n i=0 (q; q)i j=0 (q; q)j
∞ ∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  q (m+2)i  q j  (q −m ; q)n q (i+j)n
m
=
(q; q)m i=0
(q; q)i j=0 (q; q)j n=0 (q; q)n
∞ ∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  q (m+2)i  q j
= (q i+j−m ; q)m (by (15))
(q; q)m i=0
(q; q)i j=0
(q; q)j

∞ k
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2   q k+(m+1)i
= (q k−m ; q)m
(q; q)m i=0
(q; q)i (q; q)k−i
k=0

∞
 
k
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2 −m (−1)m q m(m+1)/2 q k+(m+1)i
= (q ; q)m + (q k−m ; q)m
(q; q)m (q; q)m (q; q)i (q; q)k−i
k=m+1 i=0

∞
 
k  
m m(m+1)/2 q k+(m+1)i k−1
= 1 + (−1) q ,
(q; q)i (q; q)k−i m
k=m+1 i=0

where for the third to last equality, we make the change of variables j = k − i, and
then switch the order of summations, and the second to last equality follows from
(q k−m ; q)m = 0 if 0 < k ≤ m.

3.2. Proof of Theorem 1.3

By (20), the left hand side of (9) becomes

(−q; q)∞  
m n
(−1)j q −j
2
(1 − q 2n+1 n(3n+1)/2
)q
(q; q)2∞ n=0 j=−n

(−q; q)∞ (−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n (q 1+m ; q)n+1

m
=
(q; q)2∞ n=0
(−q; q)n

(−q; q)∞ (−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n (q; q)m+n+1

m
=
(q; q)2∞ (q; q)m n=0
(−q; q)n

(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n

m
(−q n+1 ; q)∞
= m+n+2
(q; q)m n=0
(q; q)n (q ; q)∞ (q n+1 ; q)∞
∞ ∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n  (−1; q)i q (n+1)i  q (m+n+2)j
m
= (by (13), (14))
(q; q)m n=0
(q; q)n i=0 (q; q)i j=0
(q; q)j
∞ ∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (−1; q)i q i  q (m+2)j  (q −m ; q)n q (i+j)n
m
=
(q; q)m i=0
(q; q)i j=0 (q; q)j n=0 (q; q)n
 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051 13

∞ ∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (−1; q)i q i  q (m+2)j i+j−m
= (q ; q)m (by (15))
(q; q)m i=0
(q; q)i j=0 (q; q)j

∞ k
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2   (−1; q)i q (m+2)(k−i)+i k−m
= (q ; q)m
(q; q)m i=0
(q; q)i (q; q)k−i
k=0
 ∞
 k
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2
(−1; q)i q (m+2)(k−i)+i k−m
= (q −m ; q)m + (q ; q)m
(q; q)m i=0
(q; q)i (q; q)k−i
k=m+1

∞
 k  
m m(m+1)/2 (−1; q)i q (m+2)(k−i)+i k − 1
= 1 + (−1) q ,
(q; q)i (q; q)k−i m
i=0
k=m+1

where for the third to last equality, we make the change of variables j = k − i, and
then switch the order of summations, and the second to last equality follows from
(q k−m ; q)m = 0 if 0 < k ≤ m.

3.3. Proof of Theorem 1.4

By (21), the left hand side of (10) becomes

(−q; q 2 )∞  
m n
(1 − q 2n+1 3n2 +2n
)q (−1)j q −j(2j+1)
(q 2 ; q 2 )2∞ n=0 j=−n

(−q; q 2 )∞ m
(q −2m ; q 2 )n (q 2+2m ; q 2 )n+1
m m2 +m
= (−1) q
(q 2 ; q 2 )2∞ n=0
(−q; q 2 )n+1

(−q; q 2 )∞ (−1)m q m +m  (q −2m ; q 2 )n (q 2 ; q 2 )m+n+1 (q 2 ; q 2 )n

2 m
=
(q 2 ; q 2 )2∞ (q 2 ; q 2 )m n=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )n (−q; q 2 )n+1

(−1)m q m +m  (q −2m ; q 2 )n
2 m
(−q 2n+3 ; q 2 )∞
=
(q 2 ; q 2 )m n=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )n (q 2m+2n+4 ; q 2 )∞ (q 2n+2 ; q 2 )∞
∞ ∞
(−1)m q m +m  (q −2m ; q 2 )n  (−q; q 2 )i q 2(n+1)i  q 2(m+n+2)j
2 m
= (by (13), (14))
(q 2 ; q 2 )m n=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )n i=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )i j=0
(q 2 ; q 2 )j
∞ ∞
(−1)m q m +m  (−q; q 2 )i q 2i  q 2(m+2)j  (q −2m ; q 2 )n q 2(i+j)n
2 m
=
(q 2 ; q 2 )m i=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )i j=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )j n=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )n
∞ ∞
(−1)m q m +m  (−q; q 2 )i q 2i  q 2(m+2)j 2(i+j−m) 2
2

= (q ; q )m (by (15))
(q 2 ; q 2 )m i=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )i j=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )j

∞ k
(−1)m q m +m   (−q; q 2 )i q 2i q 2(m+2)(k−i) 2(k−m) 2
2

= (q ; q )m
(q 2 ; q 2 )m i=0
(q 2 ; q 2 )i (q 2 ; q 2 )k−i
k=0
14 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051

2  ∞
 k
(−1)m q m +m −2m 2 (−q; q 2 )i q 2(m+2)(k−i)+2i 2(k−m) 2
= 2 2
(q ; q )m + (q ; q )m
(q ; q )m i=0
(q 2 ; q 2 )i (q 2 ; q 2 )k−i
k=m+1
∞
 
k  
m m2 +m (−q; q 2 )i q 2(m+2)(k−i)+2i k − 1
= 1 + (−1) q ,
(q 2 ; q 2 )i (q 2 ; q 2 )k−i m q2
k=m+1 i=0

where for the third to last equality, we make the change of variables j = k − i, and
then switch the order of summations, and the second to last equality follows from
(q k−m ; q)m = 0 if 0 < k ≤ m.

4. Truncated theorems of Andrews-Merca and Guo-Zeng

As noted in Introduction, we can provide a unified treatment of Theorems 1.7, 1.8,

and 1.9 by taking different An ’s in (18). Since all of these theorems can be proved in
similar ways, we will prove Theorem 1.7 only. Instead, we will briefly sketch the proofs
explaining how to set An for the other theorems at the end of this section.

Lemma 4.1. For m ≥ 0,

m
(q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1 m
2
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2 = (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n . (26)
n=0
(q; q)n (−q; q)n n=0

Proof. For (26), we replace An by (q; q)−1 −1

n (−q; q)n in (18) to get

 m
(q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
m m(m+1)/2
(−1) q
n=0
(q; q)n (−q; q)n

m 
q −n , q n+1
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(n−1)/2 2 φ1 ; q, q
−q
n=0


m
(−q −n ; q)n q n(n+1)
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(n−1)/2 (by (16))
n=0
(−q; q)n

m
2
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n ,
n=0

from which we complete the proof of Lemma 4.1. 

4.1. Proof of Theorem 1.7

Multiplying both sides of (26) by (−q; q)∞ /(q; q)∞ , we get

(−q; q)∞ 
m
2
(−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n
(q; q)∞ n=0
 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051 15

(−q; q)∞ m
(q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1
= (−1)m q m(m+1)/2
(q; q)∞ n=0
(q; q)n (−q; q)n

(−q; q)∞ (−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n (q; q)m+n+1

m
=
(q; q)∞ (q; q)m n=0
(q; q)n (−q; q)n

(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n (−q n+1 ; q)∞

m
=
(q; q)m n=0
(q; q)n (q m+n+2 ; q)∞
∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n  (−q −m−1 ; q)k q (m+n+2)k
m
= (by (14))
(q; q)m n=0
(q; q)n (q; q)k
k=0
∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (−q −m−1 ; q)k q (m+2)k  (q −m ; q)n q nk
m
=
(q; q)m (q; q)k n=0
(q; q)n
k=0
∞
m m(m+1)/2 
(−1) q (−q −m−1 ; q)k q (m+2)k k−m
= (q ; q)m (by (15))
(q; q)m (q; q)k
k=0

(−1)m q m(m+1)/2 −m
= (q ; q)m
(q; q)m
∞

(−1)m q m(m+1)/2 (−q −m−1 ; q)k q (m+2)k k−m
+ (q ; q)m
(q; q)m (q; q)k
k=m+1
∞
  
m m(m+1)/2 (−q −m−1 ; q)k q (m+2)k k − 1
= 1 + (−1) q
(q; q)k m
k=m+1
∞
  
m −m−1 (−q; q)m+1 (−1; q)k−m−1 q (m+2)k k − 1
= 1 + (−1) q ,
(q; q)k m
k=m+1

where the third to last equality follows from (q k−m ; q)m = 0 if 0 < k ≤ m.

4.2. Proof of Theorem 1.8

For Theorem 1.8, we set An = (q; q)−1

n in (18) to get

m
(q −m ; q)n (q 1+m ; q)n+1 m
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2 = (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(3n+1)/2 .
n=0
(q; q)n n=0

By multiplying both sides by 1/(q; q)∞ , we get

1 m
(−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(3n+1)/2
(q; q)∞ n=0

1 m
(q −m ; q)n (q 1+m ; q)n+1
= (−1)m q m(m+1)/2 .
(q; q)∞ n=0
(q; q)n
16 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051

After some q-series manipulations and simplifications, we will get the theorem.

4.3. Proof of Theorem 1.9

For Theorem 1.9, we first replace q by q 2 and set An = (q; q)−1 3 2 −1

n (−q ; q )n in (18) to
get

m
(q −2m ; q 2 )n (q 2+2m ; q 2 )n+1 m
(−1)m q m(m+1) 2 ; q 2 ) (−q; q 2 )
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(2n+1) .
n=0
(q n n+1 n=0

By multiplying both sides by (−q; q 2 )∞ /(q 2 ; q 2 )∞ , we get

(−q; q 2 )∞ 
m
(−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(2n+1)
(q 2 ; q 2 )∞ n=0

(−q; q 2 )∞ m
(q −2m ; q 2 )n (q 2+2m ; q 2 )n+1
m m(m+1)
= (−1) q .
(q 2 ; q 2 )∞ n=0
(q 2 ; q 2 )n (−q; q 2 )n+1

After some q-series manipulations and simplifications, we will get the theorem.

5. Truncated theorem on cubic partitions

In this section, we consider a truncated series of (q; q)∞ (q 2 ; q 2 )∞ .

Lemma 5.1. For m ≥ 0,


m
(−1) qm m(m+1)/2
(q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1 (−q; q)n
n=0


m 
n
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(n−1)/2 (q −n ; q)j (q n+1 ; q)j (−q; q)j q j . (27)
n=0 j=0

Proof. Lemma 5.1 follows immediately by taking An to be (−q; q)n in (17). We omit the
details here. 

In the next theorem, we have the limiting case of (27).

Theorem 5.2. We have

∞
 
n
(q; q)∞ (q 2 ; q 2 )∞ = (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(n−1)/2 (q −n ; q)j (q n+1 ; q)j (−q; q)j q j .
n=0 j=0
 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051 17

Proof. First note that the left hand side of (27) can be rewritten as follows:


m
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2 (q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1 (−q; q)n
n=0


m
= (−1)m q m(m+1)/2 (−1)n q −mn+n(n−1)/2 (q m−n+1 ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1 (−q; q)n
n=0


m
(q; q)m+n+1 (−q; q)n
= (−1)m−n q (m−n)(m−n+1)/2
n=0
(q; q)m−n

m
(q; q)2m−n+1 (−q; q)m−n
= (−1)n q n(n+1)/2 .
n=0
(q; q)n

Thus, (27) is equivalent to


m
(q; q)2m−n+1 (−q; q)m−n
(−1)n q n(n+1)/2
n=0
(q; q)n

m 
n
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(n−1)/2 (q −n ; q)j (q n+1 ; q)j (−q; q)j q j .
n=0 j=0

We then let m → ∞ to get

∞
 1
(q 2 ; q 2 )∞ (−1)n q n(n+1)/2
n=0
(q; q)n
∞
 
n
= (−1)n (1 − q 2n+1 )q n(n−1)/2 (q −n ; q)j (q n+1 ; q)j (−q; q)j q j .
n=0 j=0

By (14), we can easily see that the theorem holds true. 

Remark 1. Although the series (q; q)∞ (q 2 ; q 2 )∞ and its double sum representations can
be found in the literature, for instance the identities (1.2)–(1.4) in [11], it seems that the
identity in Theorem 5.2 is new.

We are now ready to state a truncated theorem associated with (q; q)∞ (q 2 ; q 2 )∞ .

Theorem 5.3. For m ≥ 0,

1 m n
(−1)n
(1 − q 2n+1 n(n−1)/2
)q (q −n ; q)j (q n+1 ; q)j (−q; q)j q j
(q; q)∞ (q 2 ; q 2 )∞ n=0 j=0

∞
 
k/2  
q (m+2)k−2(m+1)j k − 1
= 1 + (−1)m q m(m+1)/2 .
(q 2 ; q 2 )j (q; q)k−2j m
j=0
k=m+1
18 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051

Proof. By (27),

1 m n
(−1)n
(1 − q 2n+1 n(n−1)/2
)q (q −n ; q)j (q n+1 ; q)j (−q; q)j q j
(q; q)∞ (q 2 ; q 2 )∞ n=0 j=0

1 m
= (−1)m m(m+1)/2
q (q −m ; q)n (q m+1 ; q)n+1 (−q; q)n
(q; q)∞ (q 2 ; q 2 )∞ n=0

(−1)m q m(m+1)/2 m
(q −m ; q)n (q; q)m+n+1 (q 2 ; q 2 )n
= 2 2
(q; q)∞ (q ; q )∞ (q; q)m n=0 (q; q)n

(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n

m
1
= m+n+2
(q; q)m n=0
(q; q)n (q ; q)∞ (q 2n+2 ; q 2 )∞
∞ ∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  (q −m ; q)n  q (m+n+2)i  q 2(n+1)j
m
= (by (13))
(q; q)m n=0
(q; q)n i=0 (q; q)i j=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )j
∞ ∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  q (m+2)i  q 2j m
(q −m ; q)n q (i+2j)n
=
(q; q)m i=0
(q; q)i j=0 (q 2 ; q 2 )j n=0 (q; q)n
∞ ∞
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2  q (m+2)i  q 2j
= 2 ; q2 )
(q i+2j−m ; q)m (by (15))
(q; q)m i=0
(q; q)i j=0
(q j

(−1)m q m(m+1)/2
=
(q; q)m
m k/2 ∞
 
k/2
q (m+2)k−2(m+1)j k−m q (m+2)k−2(m+1)j k−m
× (q ; q)m + (q ; q)m
j=0
(q 2 ; q 2 )j (q; q)k−2j j=0
(q 2 ; q 2 )j (q; q)k−2j
k=0 k=m+1
 ∞
  q (m+2)k−2(m+1)j
k/2
(−1)m q m(m+1)/2
= (q −m ; q)m + 2 ; q 2 ) (q; q)
(q k−m ; q)m
(q; q)m j=0
(q j k−2j
k=m+1

∞
  q (m+2)k−2(m+1)j  k − 1 
k/2
m m(m+1)/2
= 1 + (−1) q ,
(q 2 ; q 2 )j (q; q)k−2j m
j=0
k=m+1

where for the fourth to last equality, we make the change of variables i = k −2j, and then
switch the order of summations, and the second last equality follows from (q k−m ; q)m = 0
if 0 < k ≤ m. 

Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous referee for his/her careful reading and making such valu-
able comments. The first author is grateful to the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for
supporting her study at the Pennsylvania State University. She also would like to thank
the Department of Mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University for its hospitality.
 C. Wang, A.J. Yee / Advances in Mathematics 365 (2020) 107051 19

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