Customer Reviews

The Theory of Partitions (Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications)

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This is *the* classic and most essential reference on the theory of partitions and related q-series written by the leading authority on the subject. It requires almost no technical prerequisites, starts from scratch, and proceeds in a very clear and orderly manner towards some of the more elaborate aspects of the subject. If you (plan to) work on this subject, buy it.

The book was written in 1976, and as such does not cover the more recent developments, though the bibliography has been updated (to a limited degree) for the current 1998 paperback edition. However, after all these years, it remains *the* introduction to the subject (with the possible exception of chapter 14 on computational methods, which is definitely outdated), and can be supplemented only by Gaspar and Rahman's 'Basic Hypergeometric Series'. I taught a higher undergraduate level course based on chapters 1, 2, 3, 7 and 9, and my students definitely found these chapters to be highly readable.

My one and only complaint is to Cambridge University Press: Dover has shown that paperbacks can be produced in such a way that they can be opened completely flat without being damaged, and quite cheaply too. Why can't you adopt the same technology?

The Theory of Partitions is the classic reference book for the basics of partitions.
The first chapter is low-level, and then it goes upwards.
Also, some applications are included.

This is the bible for the theory of partitions