Generalized monotonicity conjecture for q-Ramanujan sums

From papers

For positive integers a,ba,b and kk, define

Cat(a,b;k)q=1[a+b]qdgcd(a,b)cd(k)q[a/d+b/da/d]qd,\operatorname{Cat}(a,b;k)_q=\frac{1}{[a+b]_q}\sum_{d\mid\gcd(a,b)}c_d(k)_q\genfrac{[}{]}{0pt}{}{a/d+b/d}{a/d}_{q^d},

where cd(k)q=sgcd(d,k)μ(d/s)[s]qc_d(k)_q=\sum_{s\mid\gcd(d,k)}\mu(d/s)[s]_q. Here [n]q[n]_q is the qq-integer, μ\mu is the Möbius function, and N[q]\mathbb{N}[q] denotes polynomials with non-negative integer coefficients. Generalized monotonicity conjecture. Fix integers g,kNg,k\in\mathbb{N}. For any a,b,c1a,b,c\geq1 satisfying gcd(a,b)=gcd(a,c)=g\gcd(a,b)=\gcd(a,c)=g,

Cat(a,c;k)qCat(a,b;k)qN[q].\operatorname{Cat}(a,c;k)_q-\operatorname{Cat}(a,b;k)_q\in\mathbb{N}[q].

This conjecture generalizes the coprime monotonicity conjecture and the non-negativity conjecture of Reiner, Stanton, and White. The source reports computational tests for a20a\leq20 and bc80b\leq c\leq80; the general assertion remains open.

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Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Drew Armstrong, “Lattice Points and Rational q-Catalan Numbers”, arXiv:2403.06318 (2026).

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