Note on a partition limit theorem for rank and crank

Abstract

If L is a partition of n, the rank of L is the size of the largest part minus the number of parts. Under the uniform distribution on partitions, Bringmann, Mahlburg, and Rhoades showed that the rank statistic has a limiting distribution. We identify the limit as the difference between two independent extreme value distributions and as the distribution of B(T) where B(t) is standard Brownian motion and T is the first time that an independent three-dimensional Brownian motion hits the unit sphere. The same limit holds for the crank.