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Congruences for Wolstenholme primes

Number Theory 2018-04-10 v1

Abstract

A prime number pp is said to be a Wolstenholme prime if it satisfies the congruence (2p1p1)1(modp4){2p-1\choose p-1} \equiv 1 \,\,(\bmod{\,\,p^4}). For such a prime pp, we establish the expression for (2p1p1)(modp8){2p-1\choose p-1}\,\,(\bmod{\,\,p^8}) given in terms of the sums Ri:=k=1p11/kiR_i:=\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}1/k^i (i=1,2,3,4,5,6)i=1,2,3,4,5,6). Further, the expression in this congruence is reduced in terms of the sums RiR_i (i=1,3,4,5i=1,3,4,5). Using this congruence, we prove that for any Wolstenholme prime, (2p1p1)12pk=1p11k2p2k=1p11k2(modp7). {2p-1\choose p-1}\equiv 1 -2p \sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k} -2p^2\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k^2}\pmod{p^7}. Moreover, using a recent result of the author \cite{Me}, we prove that the above congruence implies that a prime pp necessarily must be a Wolstenholme prime. Applying a technique of Helou and Terjanian \cite{HT}, the above congruence is given as the expression involving the Bernoulli numbers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1108.4178,
  title  = {Congruences for Wolstenholme primes},
  author = {Romeo Mestrovic},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1108.4178},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

pages 16

R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:53:18.056Z