Overpartition pairs and two classes of basic hypergeometric series

We study the combinatorics of two classes of basic hypergeometric series. We first show that these series are the generating functions for certain overpartition pairs defined by frequency conditions on the parts. We then show that when specialized these series are also the generating functions for overpartition pairs with bounded successive ranks, overpartition pairs with conditions on their Durfee dissection, as well as certain lattice paths. When further specialized, the series become infinite products, leading to numerous identities for partitions, overpartitions, and overpartition pairs.Comment: 31 pages, To appear in Adv. Mat

Duality and quantum-algebra symmetry of the A_{N-1}^(1) open spin chain with diagonal boundary fields

We show that the transfer matrix of the A_{N-1}^(1) open spin chain with diagonal boundary fields has the symmetry U_q (SU(L)) x U_q (SU(N-L)) x U(1), as well as a ``duality'' symmetry which interchanges L and N - L. We exploit these symmetries to compute exact boundary S matrices in the regime with q real.Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, 1 LaTeX figur

Classical Scattering in 1+11+1 Dimensional String Theory

We find the general solution to Polchinski's classical scattering equations for $1+1$ dimensional string theory. This allows efficient computation of scattering amplitudes in the standard Liouville $\times$ $c=1$ background. Moreover, the solution leads to a mapping from a large class of time-dependent collective field theory backgrounds to corresponding nonlinear sigma models. Finally, we derive recursion relations between tachyon amplitudes. These may be summarized by an infinite set of nonlinear PDE's for the partition function in an arbitrary time-dependent background.Comment: 15 p

Algorithms Seminar, 2002-2004

These seminar notes constitute the proceedings of a seminar devoted to the analysis of algorithms and related topics. The subjects covered include combinatorics, symbolic computation, and the asymptotic analysis of algorithms, data structures, and network protocols