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Recall that if λ=(λ1,λ2,…λN) is a partition of the positive integer n, i.e. n=λ1+λ2+⋯+λN, then the convention is to arrange the parts so that λ1≥λ2≥⋯≥λN≥1.
For a given positive integer N (the number of "rows" in the "lecture hall"), a lecture-hall partition of the integer n is a collection of non-negative integers λ=(λ1,λ2,…λN) such that (1) holds, and λ1N≥λ2N−1≥⋯≥λN1≥0. Note in particular that for lecture hall partitions, some of the λi may be 0.
Let LN denote the set of all such lecture hall partitions, i.e., LN:={(λ1,λ2,…λN)|λ1N≥λ2N−1≥⋯≥λN1≥0}, and for any positive integer, let lN(n) denote the number of lecture hall partitions of n in LN: lN(n):=|{(λ1,λ2,…λN)∈LN|λ1+λ2+⋯+λN=n}|.
Lecture hall partitions were introduced by Bousquet-Mélou and Eriksson in [1], where they showed that the generating function for the sequence {lN(n)}∞n=0 (by convention, lN(0)=1) had closed form given by ∞∑n=0lN(n)qn=N∏j=111−q2j−1.
A survey of extensions and developments in the theory may be found in the paper [2] by Carla Savage.
[1] Mireille Bousquet-Mélou and Kimmo Eriksson. Lecture hall partitions. Ramanujan J., 1(1), 101–111,
1997.
[2] Carla D. Savage, The mathematics of lecture hall partitions. J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 144 (2016), 443–475.
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