The Arithmetic of Spectra: Factorization, Statistics, and Symmetric Functions

Abstract: We study factorizations of the single-particle spectrum of non-interacting quantum systems and their consequences for many-particle statistics. Representing the single-particle partition function by a spectral alphabet, tensor factorizations become multiplicative factorizations of the alphabet, which can be lifted to canonical Bose and Fermi partition functions using standard symmetric-function and $λ$-ring identities. We show how product spectra arise from different factorizations, how antisymmetrization can be assigned across an odd number of factors, and which tensor factorizations are compatible with a fixed spectrum. The paper therefore studies spectral factorization and provides a consolidated combinatorial framework for canonical Bose and Fermi partition functions.