A unified framework to prove multiplicative inequalities for the partition function

In this paper, we consider a certain class of inequalities for the partition function of the following form:$\prod _{i=1}^{T}p(n+s_i)\ge \prod _{i=1}^{T}p(n+r_i),$ which we call multiplicative inequalities. Given a multiplicative inequality with the condition that ${\sum }_{i=1}^T{s}_i^m\ne {\sum }_{i=1}^T{r}_i^m$ for at least one $m\ge 1$, we shall construct a unified framework so as to decide whether such a inequality holds or not. As a consequence, we will see that study of such inequalities has manifold applications. For example, one can retrieve log-concavity property, strong log-concavity, and the multiplicative inequality for $p(n)$ considered by Bessenrodt and Ono, to name a few. Furthermore, we obtain an asymptotic expansion for the finite difference of the logarithm of $p(n)$, denoted by ${(-1)}^{r-1}{\mathrm{\Delta }}^r\log p(n)$, which generalizes a result by Chen, Wang, and Xie.     

A note on the distribution of weights of fixed-rank matrices over the binary field

Let M be a random $m\times n$ rank-r matrix over the binary field ${\mathbb{F}}_2$, and let $\mathrm{wt}(\mathbf{M})$ be its Hamming weight, that is, the number of nonzero entries of M.We prove that, as $m,n\to +\infty$ with r fixed and $m/n$ tending to a constant, we have that$\frac{\mathrm{wt}(\mathbf{M})-\frac{1-2^{-r}}{2}mn}{\sqrt{\frac{2^{-r}(1-2^{-r})}{4}(m+n)mn}}$ converges in distribution to a standard normal random variable.     

Large blocking sets in PG(2,q2)

Minimal blocking sets in $\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)$ have size at most $q^3+1$. This result is due to Bruen and Thas and the bound is sharp, sets attaining this bound are called unitals. In this paper, we show that the second largest minimal blocking sets have size at most $q^3+1-(p-3)/2$, if $q=p$, $p\ge 67$, or $q=p^h$, $p>7$, $h>1$. Our proof also works for sets having at least one tangent at each of its points (that is, for tangency sets).     

Erdős matching conjecture for almost perfect matchings

In 1965 Erd?s asked, what is the largest size of a family of k-element subsets of an n-element set that does not contain a matching of size $s+1$? In this note, we improve upon a recent result of Frankl and resolve this problem for $s>101k^3$ and $(s+1)k?n<(s+1)(k+\frac{1}{100k})$.