Combinatorial interpretations of Ramanujan's tau function

Abstract

We use a q-series identity by Ramanujan to give a combinatorial interpretation of Ramanujan's tau function which involves t-cores and a new class of partitions which we call (m,k)-capsids. The same method can be applied in conjunction with other related identities yielding alternative combinatorial interpretations of the tau function.

14 pages, 3 figures