Bressoud's coefficient-positivity conjecture

For nonnegative integers A,BA,B, define the qq-binomial coefficient by

[A\B]q:={(q;q)A(q;q)B(q;q)AB,0BA,0,otherwise.\begin{bmatrix} A\B\end{bmatrix}_q:= \begin{cases} \displaystyle\frac{(q;q)_A}{(q;q)_B(q;q)_{A-B}},&0\le B\le A,\\ 0,&\text{otherwise.} \end{cases}

Suppose that M,NZ+M,N\in\mathbb Z^+, that α\alpha and β\beta are positive rational numbers, and that KK is a positive integer with αK\alpha K and βK\beta K integers. If 1α+β2K+11\le\alpha+\beta\le2K+1, with strict inequalities when K=2K=2, and βKnMKα\beta-K\le n-M\le K-\alpha, then the polynomial

j=(1)jqj(K(α+β)j+K(αβ))/2[M+N\M+Kj]q\sum_{j=-\infty}^{\infty}(-1)^jq^{j(K(\alpha+\beta)j+K(\alpha-\beta))/2}\begin{bmatrix}M+N\M+Kj\end{bmatrix}_q

has non-negative coefficients. The source presents this as Bressoud's conjecture and does not report a resolution.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Chen Wang and Christian Krattenthaler, “An asymptotic approach to Borwein-type sign pattern theorems”, arXiv:2201.12415 (2022).

Additional references

5 papers in this index state this conjecture (2000–2022). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:2111.13994, arXiv:2002.07986, arXiv:math/0302320, arXiv:math/0011220.

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