Crank of a partition

Freeman Dyson in 2005

In number theory, the crank of an integer partition is a certain number associated with the partition. It was first introduced without a definition by Freeman Dyson, who hypothesised its existence in a 1944 paper.[1] Dyson gave a list of properties this yet-to-be-defined quantity should have. In 1988, George E. Andrews and Frank Garvan discovered a definition for the crank satisfying the properties hypothesized for it by Dyson.[2]

  1. ^ Freeman J. Dyson (1944). "Some Guesses in The Theory of Partitions" (PDF). Eureka (Cambridge). 8: 10–15. ISBN 9780821805619.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference def was invoked but never defined (see the help page).