Ballantine–Burson–Craig–Folsom–Wen hook-count conjecture

Let at(n)a_t(n) be the total number of tt-hooks in all partitions of nn into odd parts, and let bt(n)b_t(n) be the total number of tt-hooks in all partitions of nn into distinct parts. For n≥1n\geq 1, one has ∑t≥1at(n)=∑t≥1bt(n)\sum_{t\geq 1}a_t(n)=\sum_{t\geq 1}b_t(n), and Andrews's inequality gives a1(n)≥b1(n)a_1(n)\geq b_1(n). Ballantine–Burson–Craig–Folsom–Wen conjecture. For every integer t≥2t\geq 2,

at(n)−bt(n)→∞as n→∞.a_t(n)-b_t(n)\to\infty \quad\text{as }n\to\infty.

The conjecture reverses Andrews's inequality for every hook length t>1t>1 in the asymptotic sense. It was proved for t=2,3t=2,3 by Ballantine, Burson, Craig, Folsom, and Wen, and the remaining cases were settled by Craig, Dawsey, and Han.

References

Primary source

Aritram Dhar, Byungchan Kim, Eunmi Kim and Ae Ja Yee, “Inequalities for the number of t-hooks in two partition classes arising from sum-product identities”, arXiv:2603.01112 (2026).

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