A motivated proof of the G\"ollnitz-Gordon-Andrews identities

Abstract

We present what we call a "motivated proof" of the G\"{o}llnitz-Gordon-Andrews identities. A similar motivated proof of the Rogers-Ramanujan identities was previously given by G. E. Andrews and R. J. Baxter, and was subsequently generalized to Gordon's identities by J. Lepowsky and M. Zhu. We anticipate that the present proof of the G\"{o}llnitz-Gordon-Andrews identities will illuminate certain twisted vertex-algebraic constructions.