NUMBER THEORETIC PROPERTIES OF WRONSKIANS OF ANDREWS–GORDON SERIES

Abstract

For positive integers 1 ≤ i ≤ k, we consider the arithmetic properties of quotients of Wronskians in certain normalizations of the Andrews–Gordon q-series [Formula: see text] This study is motivated by their appearance in conformal field theory, where these series are essentially the irreducible characters of [Formula: see text] Virasoro minimal models. We determine the vanishing of such Wronskians, a result whose proof reveals many partition identities. For example, if Pb(a;n) denotes the number of partitions of n into parts which are not congruent to 0, ±a ( mod b), then for every positive integer n, we have [Formula: see text] We also show that these quotients classify supersingular elliptic curves in characteristic p. More precisely, if 2k + 1 = p, where p ≥ 5 is prime, and the quotient is non-zero, then it is essentially the locus of supersingular j-invariants in characteristic p.