The powers of two as sums over partitions

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate two methods to express the natural powers of 2 as sums over integer partitions. First we consider a formula by N. J. Fine that allows us to express a binomial coefficient in terms of multinomial coefficients as a sum over partitions. The second method invokes the central binomial coefficients and the logarithmic differentiation of their generating function. Some experimental results suggest the existence of other methods of decomposing the power of 2 as sums over partitions.