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Nickolas Andersen

Publications and source records attributed to Nickolas Andersen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

Transcendental formulas for the coefficients of Ramanujan's mock theta functions

Ramanujan's 1920 last letter to Hardy contains seventeen examples of mock theta functions which he organized into three "orders." The most famous of these is the third-order function $f(q)$ which has received the most attention of any individual mock theta function in the intervening century. In 1964, Andrews--improving on a result of Dragonette--gave an asymptotic formula for the coefficients of $f(q)$ and conjectured an exact formula for the coefficients: a conditionally convergent series that closely resembles the Hardy-Ramanujan-Rademacher formula for the partition function. To prove that the conjectured series converges, it is necessary to carefully measure the cancellation among the Kloosterman sums appearing in the formula. Andrews' conjecture was proved four decades later by Bringmann and Ono. Here we prove exact formulas for all seventeen of the mock theta functions appearing in Ramanujan's last letter. Along the way, we prove a general theorem bounding sums of Kloosterman sums for the Weil representation attached to a lattice of odd rank.

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arXiv2025

Congruences like Atkin's for generalized Frobenius partitions

In the 1960s Atkin discovered congruences modulo primes $\ell\leq 31$ for the partition function $p(n)$ in arithmetic progressions modulo $\ell Q^3$, where $Q\neq \ell$ is prime. Recent work of the first author with Allen and Tang shows that such congruences exist for all primes $\ell\geq 5$. Here we consider (for primes $m\geq 5$) the $m$-colored generalized Frobenius partition functions $c\phi_m(n)$; these are natural level $m$ analogues of $p(n)$. For each such $m$ we prove that there are similar congruences for $c\phi_m(n)\pmod \ell$ for all primes $\ell$ outside of an explicit finite set depending on $m$. To prove the result we first construct, using both theoretical and computational methods, cusp forms of half-integral weight on $\Gamma_0(m)$ which capture the relevant values of $c\phi_m(n)$ modulo~$\ell$. We then apply previous work of the authors on the Shimura lift for modular forms with the eta multiplier together with tools from the theory of modular Galois representations.

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arXiv2023

The Weil bound for generalized Kloosterman sums of half-integral weight

Let $L$ be an even lattice of odd rank with discriminant group $L'/L$, and let $\alpha,\beta \in L'/L$. We prove the Weil bound for the Kloosterman sums $S_{\alpha,\beta}(m,n,c)$ of half-integral weight for the Weil Representation attached to $L$. We obtain this bound by proving an identity that relates a divisor sum of Kloosterman sums to a sparse exponential sum. This identity generalizes Kohnen's identity for plus space Kloosterman sums with the theta multiplier system.

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arXiv2023

The Shimura lift and congruences for modular forms with the eta multiplier

The Shimura correspondence is a fundamental tool in the study of half-integral weight modular forms. In this paper, we prove a Shimura-type correspondence for spaces of half-integral weight cusp forms which transform with a power of the Dedekind eta multiplier twisted by a Dirichlet character. We prove that the lift of a cusp form of weight $\lambda+1/2$ and level $N$ has weight $2\lambda$ and level $6N$, and is new at the primes $2$ and $3$ with specified Atkin-Lehner eigenvalues. This precise information leads to arithmetic applications. For a wide family of spaces of half-integral weight modular forms we prove the existence of infinitely many primes $\ell$ which give rise to quadratic congruences modulo arbitrary powers of $\ell$.

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arXiv2022

An infinite family of vector-valued mock theta functions

We exhibit an infinite family of vector-valued mock theta functions indexed by positive integers coprime to $6$. These are built from specializations of Dyson's rank generating function and related functions studied by Watson, Gordon, and McIntosh. The associated completed harmonic Maass forms transform according to the Weil representation attached to a rank one lattice. This strengthens a 2010 result of Bringmann and Ono and a 2019 result of Garvan.

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arXiv2022

Hybrid subconvexity and the partition function

We give an upper bound for the error term in the Hardy-Ramanujan-Rademacher formula for the partition function. The main input is a new hybrid subconvexity bound for the central value $L(\tfrac 12,f\times (\tfrac{q}{\cdot}))$ in the $q$ and spectral parameter aspects, where $f$ is a Hecke-Maass cusp form for $\Gamma_0(N)$ and $q$ is a fundamental discriminant.

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arXiv2021

Non-convex geometry of numbers and continued fractions

In recent work, the first two authors constructed a generalized continued fraction called the $p$-continued fraction, characterized by the property that its convergents (a subsequence of the regular convergents) are best approximations with respect to the $L^p$ norm, where $p\geq 1$. We extend this construction to the region $0<p<1$, where now the $L^p$ quasinorm is non-convex. We prove that the approximation coefficients of the $p$-continued fraction are bounded above by $1/\sqrt{5}+\varepsilon_p$, where $\varepsilon_p\to 0$ as $p\to 0$. In light of Hurwitz's theorem, this upper bound is sharp, in the limit. We also measure the maximum number of consecutive regular convergents that are skipped by the $p$-continued fraction.

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arXiv2020

Asymptotic distribution of traces of singular moduli

We determine the asymptotic behavior of twisted traces of singular moduli with a power-saving error term in both the discriminant and the order of the pole at $i\infty$. Using this asymptotic formula, we obtain an exact formula for these traces involving the class number and a finite sum involving the exponential function evaluated at CM points.

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arXiv2020

Zeros of $\mathrm{GL}_2$ $L$-functions on the critical line

We use Levinson's method and the work of Blomer and Harcos on the $\mathrm{GL}_2$ shifted convolution problem to prove that at least 6.96% of the zeros of the L-function of any holomorphic or Maass cusp form lie on the critical line.

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arXiv2019

The Minkowski chain and Diophantine approximation

The Hurwitz chain gives a sequence of pairs of Farey approximations to an irrational real number. Minkowski gave a criterion for a number to be algebraic by using a certain generalization of the Hurwitz chain. We apply Minkowski's generalization (the Minkowski chain) to give criteria for a real linear form to be either badly approximable or singular. We also give a variant of Dirichlet's approximation theorem for a real linear form that produces a whole basis of approximating integral vectors rather than a single one. This result holds if and only if the form is badly approximable. The proofs rely on properties of successive minima and reduced bases of lattices.

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arXiv2019

On a theorem of Davenport and Schmidt

This work is motivated by a paper of Davenport and Schmidt, which treats the question of when Dirichlet's theorems on the rational approximation of one or of two irrationals can be improved and if so, by how much. We consider a generalization of this question in the simplest case of a single irrational but in the context of the geometry of numbers in $\mathbb R^2$, with the sup-norm replaced by a more general one. Results include sharp bounds for how much improvement is possible under various conditions. The proofs use semi-regular continued fractions that are characterized by a certain best approximation property determined by the norm.

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arXiv2018

Markov spectra for modular billiards

We introduce some analogues of the Markov spectrum defined in terms of modular billiards and consider the problem of characterizing that part of the spectrum below the lowest limit point.

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arXiv2018

Modular invariants for real quadratic fields and Kloosterman sums

We investigate the asymptotic distribution of integrals of the $j$-function that are associated to ideal classes in a real quadratic field. To estimate the error term in our asymptotic formula, we prove a bound for sums of Kloosterman sums of half-integral weight that is uniform in every parameter. To establish this estimate we prove a variant of Kuznetsov's formula where the spectral data is restricted to half-integral weight forms in the Kohnen plus space, and we apply Young's hybrid subconvexity estimates for twisted modular $L$-functions.

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arXiv2018

Level Reciprocity in the twisted second moment of Rankin-Selberg L-functions

We prove an exact formula for the second moment of Rankin-Selberg $L$-functions $L(1/2,f \times g)$ twisted by $\lambda_f(p)$, where $g$ is a fixed holomorphic cusp form and $f$ is summed over automorphic forms of a given level $q$. The formula is a reciprocity relation that exchanges the twist parameter $p$ and the level $q$. The method involves the Bruggeman/Kuznetsov trace formula on both ends; finally the reciprocity relation is established by an identity of sums of Kloosterman sums.

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arXiv2017

Shifted polyharmonic Maass forms for PSL(2,Z)

We study the vector space V_k^m(\lambda) of shifted polyharmonic Maass forms of weight k \in 2Z, depth m \geq 0, and shift \lambda \in C. This space is composed of real-analytic modular forms of weight k for PSL(2,Z) with moderate growth at the cusp which are annihilated by (\Delta_k - \lambda)^m, where \Delta_k is the weight k hyperbolic Laplacian. We treat the case \lambda \neq 0, complementing work of the second and third authors on polyharmonic Maass forms (with no shift). We show that V_k^m(\lambda) is finite-dimensional and bound its dimension. We explain the role of the real-analytic Eisenstein series E_k(z,s) with \lambda=s(s+k-1) and of the differential operator d/ds in this theory.

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arXiv2017

A polyharmonic Maass form of depth 3/2 for SL_2(Z)

Duke, Imamoglu, and Toth constructed a polyharmonic Maass form of level 4 whose Fourier coefficients encode real quadratic class numbers. A more general construction of such forms was subsequently given by Bruinier, Funke, and Imamoglu. Here we give a direct construction of such a form for the full modular group and study the properties of its coefficients. We give interpretations of the coefficients of the holomorphic parts of each of these polyharmonic Maass forms as inner products of certain weakly holomorphic modular forms and harmonic Maass forms. The coefficients of square index are particularly intractable; in order to address these, we develop various extensions of the usual normalized Peterson inner product using a strategy of Bringmann, Ehlen and Diamantis.

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arXiv2016

Images of Maass-Poincar\'e series in the lower half-plane

In this note we extend integral weight harmonic Maass forms to functions defined on the upper and lower half-planes using the method of Poincar\'e series. This relates to Rademacher's "expansion of zero" principle, which was recently employed by Rhoades to link mock theta functions and partial theta functions.

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