Our main result establishes Andrews’ conjecture for the asymptotic of the generating function for the number of integer partitions of$n$without$k$consecutive parts. The methods we develop are applicable in obtaining asymptotics for stochastic processes that avoid patterns; as a result they yield asymptotics for the number of partitions that avoid patterns.Holroyd, Liggett, and Romik, in connection with certain bootstrap percolation models, introduced the study of partitions without$k$consecutive parts. Andrews showed that when$k=2$, the generating function for these partitions is a mixed-mock modular form and, thus, has modularity properties which can be utilized in the study of this generating function. For$k>2$, the asymptotic properties of the generating functions have proved more difficult to obtain. Using$q$-series identities and the$k=2$case as evidence, Andrews stated a conjecture for the asymptotic behavior. Extensive computational evidence for the conjecture in the case$k=3$was given by Zagier.This paper improved upon early approaches to this problem by identifying and overcoming two sources of error. Since the writing of this paper, a more precise asymptotic result was established by Bringmann, Kane, Parry, and Rhoades. That approach uses very different methods.
Asymptotic expansions for the first hitting times of Bessel processes
