Generalization of a few results in Integer Partitions

Abstract

In this paper, we generalize a few important results in Integer Partitions; namely the results known as Stanley's theorem and Elder's theorem, and the congruence results proposed by Ramanujan for the partition function. We generalize the results of Stanley and Elder from a fixed integer to an array of subsequent integers, and propose an analogue of Ramanujan's congruence relations for the `number of parts' function instead of the partition function. We also deduce the generating function for the `number of parts', and relate the technical results with their graphical interpretations through a novel use of the Ferrer's diagrams.