English

An elementary proof of a congruence by Skula and Granville

Number Theory 2018-04-10 v1

Abstract

Let p5p\ge 5 be a prime, and let qp(2):=(2p11)/pq_p(2):=(2^{p-1}-1)/p be the Fermat quotient of pp to base 2. The following curious congruence was conjectured by L. Skula and proved by A. Granville qp(2)2k=1p12kk2(modp). q_p(2)^2\equiv -\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{2^k}{k^2}\pmod{p}. In this note we establish the above congruence by entirely elementary number theory arguments.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1108.2361,
  title  = {An elementary proof of a congruence by Skula and Granville},
  author = {Romeo Mestrovic},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1108.2361},
  year   = {2018}
}

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