English

A supercongruence related to Whipple's ${}_5F_4$ formula and Dwork's dash operation

Number Theory 2026-02-16 v1

Abstract

We establish a parametric supercongruence related to Whipple's 5F4{}_5F_4 formula and Dwork's dash operation. As a typical consequence, we obtain the following result: for any prime p3(mod4)p\equiv3\pmod4 and odd integer r1r\geq1, k=0pr1(8k+1)(14)k3(12)k(1)k3(34)k3pr+27p3r4H(pr3)/4(2)(modpr+3), \sum_{k=0}^{p^r-1}(8k+1)\frac{(\frac14)_k^3(\frac12)_k}{(1)_k^3(\frac34)_k}\equiv 3p^r+\frac{27p^{3r}}{4}H_{(p^r-3)/4}^{(2)}\pmod{p^{r+3}}, where (x)n=x(x+1)(x+n1)(x)_n=x(x+1)\cdots(x+n-1) is the Pochhammer symbol and Hn(2)=k=1n1k2H_n^{(2)}=\sum_{k=1}^n\frac{1}{k^2} is the nn-th harmonic number of order 22. This confirms a conjecture of Guo and Zhao [Forum Math. 38 (2026), 1099-1109]. Our proof rely on a new parametric WZ pair which allows us to transform the original sum to a computable form in the sense of congruence. Another essential ingredient of our proof involves the properties of Dwork's dash operation.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.13001,
  title  = {A supercongruence related to Whipple's ${}_5F_4$ formula and Dwork's dash operation},
  author = {Chen Wang and He-Xia Ni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.13001},
  year   = {2026}
}

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16 pages