Andrews-Gordon identities from combinations of Virasoro characters

Abstract

For p \in {3, 4} and all p' > p, with p' coprime to p, we obtain fermionic expressions for the combination χ^{p, p'}_{1, s} + q^Δ χ^{p, p'}_{p-1,s} of Virasoro (W_2) characters for various values of s, and particular choices of Delta. Equating these expressions with known product expressions, we obtain q-series identities which are akin to the Andrews-Gordon identities. For p=3, these identities were conjectured by Bytsko. For p=4, we obtain identities whose form is a variation on that of the p=3 cases. These identities appear to be new. The case (p,p')=(3,14) is particularly interesting because it relates not only to W_2, but also to W_3 characters, and offers W_3 analogues of the original Andrews-Gordon identities. Our fermionic expressions for these characters differ from those of Andrews et al which involve Gaussian polynomials.

18 pages, latex. Improved exposition, added comments for clarity, added references. No changes to content. The Ramanujan Journal, published online on September 21, 2007 via http://www.springerlink.com/content/478544t414l26v05/