An Invitation To Q Series

The aim of this lecture notes is to provide a self-contained exposition of several fascinating formulas discovered by Srinivasa Ramanujan. Two central results in these notes are: (1) the evaluation of the Rogers–Ramanujan continued fraction — a result that convinced G H Hardy that Ramanujan was a “mathematician of the highest class”, and (2) what G H Hardy called Ramanujan's “Most Beautiful Identity”. This book covers a range of related results, such as several proofs of the famous Rogers–Ramanujan identities and a detailed account of Ramanujan's congruences. It also covers a range of techniques in q-series.

The aim of these lecture notes is to provide a self-contained exposition of several fascinating formulas discovered by Srinivasa Ramanujan. Two central results in these notes are: (1) the evaluation of the RogersOCoRamanujan continued fraction OCo a result that convinced G H Hardy that Ramanujan was a OC mathematician of the highest classOCO, and (2) what G. H. Hardy called Ramanujan''s OC Most Beautiful IdentityOCO. This book covers a range of related results, such as several proofs of the famous RogersOCoRamanujan identities and a detailed account of Ramanujan''s congruences. It also covers a range of techniques in q-series."

The aim of these lecture notes is to provide a self-contained exposition of several fascinating formulas discovered by Srinivasa Ramanujan. Two central results in these notes are: (1) the evaluation of the Rogers–Ramanujan continued fraction — a result that convinced G H Hardy that Ramanujan was a “mathematician of the highest class”, and (2) what G. H. Hardy called Ramanujan's “Most Beautiful Identity”. This book covers a range of related results, such as several proofs of the famous Rogers–Ramanujan identities and a detailed account of Ramanujan's congruences. It also covers a range of techniques in q-series. Contents:Jacob's Triple Product IdentityThe Rogers-Ramanujan IdentitiesThe rogers-Ramanujan continued FractionFrom the “Most Beautiful Identity” to Ramanujan's Congruences Readership: Graduate students and researchers in number theory. Keywords:Rogers–Ramanujan Continued Fraction;Rogers–Ramanujan Identities;Ramanujan's “Most Beautiful Identity”;Ramanujan CongruencesReviews: “A great strength of this book is that almost every major result is proven in several different ways, illustrating the breadth of approaches to q-series … This book is well written with results that are well motivated and clearly explained. It is an excellent and statisfying introduction to q-series.” Mathematical Reviews

The Rogers--Ramanujan identities are a pair of infinite series—infinite product identities that were first discovered in 1894. Over the past several decades these identities, and identities of similar type, have found applications in number theory, combinatorics, Lie algebra and vertex operator algebra theory, physics (especially statistical mechanics), and computer science (especially algorithmic proof theory). Presented in a coherant and clear way, this will be the first book entirely devoted to the Rogers—Ramanujan identities and will include related historical material that is unavailable elsewhere.

This is a rigorous introduction to the theory of complex functions of one complex variable. The authors have made an effort to present some of the deeper and more interesting results, for example, Picard's theorems, Riemann mapping theorem, Runge's theorem in the first few chapters. However, the very basic theory is nevertheless given a thorough treatment so that readers should never feel lost. After the first five chapters, the order may be adapted to suit the course. Each chapter finishes with exercises. Request Inspection Copy

This unique book explores the world of q, known technically as basic hypergeometric series, and represents the author’s personal and life-long study—inspired by Ramanujan—of aspects of this broad topic. While the level of mathematical sophistication is graduated, the book is designed to appeal to advanced undergraduates as well as researchers in the field. The principal aims are to demonstrate the power of the methods and the beauty of the results. The book contains novel proofs of many results in the theory of partitions and the theory of representations, as well as associated identities. Though not specifically designed as a textbook, parts of it may be presented in course work; it has many suitable exercises. After an introductory chapter, the power of q-series is demonstrated with proofs of Lagrange’s four-squares theorem and Gauss’s two-squares theorem. Attention then turns to partitions and Ramanujan’s partition congruences. Several proofs of these are given throughout the book. Many chapters are devoted to related and other associated topics. One highlight is a simple proof of an identity of Jacobi with application to string theory. On the way, we come across the Rogers–Ramanujan identities and the Rogers–Ramanujan continued fraction, the famous “forty identities” of Ramanujan, and the representation results of Jacobi, Dirichlet and Lorenz, not to mention many other interesting and beautiful results. We also meet a challenge of D.H. Lehmer to give a formula for the number of partitions of a number into four squares, prove a “mysterious” partition theorem of H. Farkas and prove a conjecture of R.Wm. Gosper “which even Erdős couldn’t do.” The book concludes with a look at Ramanujan’s remarkable tau function.

This book presents several results on elliptic functions and Pi, using Jacobi’s triple product identity as a tool to show suprising connections between different topics within number theory such as theta functions, Eisenstein series, the Dedekind delta function, and Ramanujan’s work on Pi. The included exercises make it ideal for both classroom use and self-study.