TITLE: Integer partition with fixed number of summands but without order
QUESTION [14 upvotes]: For a fixed $n$ and $M$, I am interested in the number of unordered non-negative integer solutions to
$$\sum_{i = 1}^n a_i = M$$
Or, in other words, I am interested in the number of solutions with distinct numbers. For $n = 2$ and $M = 5$, I would consider solutions $(1,4)$ and $(4,1)$ equivalent, and choose the solution with $a_1 \ge a_2 \ge ... \ge a_n \ge 0$ as the representative of the class of equivalent solutions.
I know how to obtain the number of total, ordered, solutions with the "stars and bars" method. But unfortunately, I cannot just divide the result by $n!$ since that would only work if all the $a_i$ are distinct.

REPLY [2 votes]: Let the number of partitions be $P_n(M)$.  By looking at the smallest number in the partition, $a_n$, we get a recurrence for $P_n(M)$:
$$
P_n(M) = P_{n-1}(M) + P_{n-1}(M-n) + P_{n-1}(M-2n) + P_{n-1}(M-3n) + ...
$$
Where $P_n(0)=1$ and $P_n(M)=0$ for $M<0$.  The first term in the sum above comes from letting $a_n=0$, the second term from $a_n=1$, the third from $a_n=2$, etc.
Now lets look at $g_n$, the generating function for $P_n$:
$$
g_n(x) = \sum_{M=0}^\infty P_n(M)\;x^M
$$
Plugging the recurrence above into this sum yields a recurrence for $g_n$:
\begin{align}
g_n(x)&=\sum_{M=0}^\infty P_n(M)\;x^M\\
&=\sum_{M=0}^\infty (P_{n-1}(M) + P_{n-1}(M-n) + P_{n-1}(M-2n) + P_{n-1}(M-3n) + ...)\;x^M\\
&=\sum_{M=0}^\infty P_{n-1}(M)\;(1+x^n+x^{2n}+x^{3n}+...)\\
&=g_{n-1}(x)/(1-x^n)
\end{align}
Note that $P_0(0)=1$ and $P_0(M)=0$ for $M>0$.  This means that $g_0(x)=1$.  Combined with the recurrence for $g_n$, we get that
$$
g_n(x)=1/(1-x)/(1-x^2)/(1-x^3)/.../(1-x^n)
$$
For example, if $n=1$, we get
$$
g_1(x) = 1/(1-x) = 1+x+x^2+x^3+...
$$
Thus, $P_1(M) = 1$ for all $M$.  If $n=2$, we get
\begin{align}
g_2(x) &= 1/(1-x)/(1-x^2)\\
&= 1+x+2x^2+2x^3+3x^4+3x^5+4x^6+4x^7+5x^8+5x^9+6x^{10}+...
\end{align}
Thus, $P_2(7)=4$, $P_2(10)=6$, etc.