Partitions into distinct parts with bounded largest part

Abstract

We prove an asymptotic formula for the number of partitions of $n$ into distinct parts where the largest part is at most $t\sqrt{n}$ for fixed $t \in \mathbb{R}$. Our method follows a probabilistic approach of Romik, who gave a simpler proof of Szekeres' asymptotic formula for distinct parts partitions when instead the number of parts is bounded by $t\sqrt{n}$. Although equivalent to a circle method/saddle-point method calculation, the probabilistic approach predicts the shape of the asymptotic formula, to some degree.