English

Congruences of Power Sums

Number Theory 2018-01-08 v1

Abstract

The following congruence for power sums, Sn(p)S_n(p), is well known and has many applications: 1n+2n++pn{1 mod p, if  p1  n;0 mod p, if  p1 ∤ n,1^n+2^n +\dots +p^n \equiv\begin{cases} -1 \text{ mod } p, & \text{ if } \ p-1 \ | \ n; 0 \text{ mod } p, & \text{ if } \ p-1 \ \not| \ n, \end{cases} where nNn\in{\mathbb N} and pp is prime. We extend this congruence, in particular, to the case when pp is any power of a prime. We also show that the sequence (Sn(m) mod k)m1(S_n(m) \text{ mod } k )_{m \geq 1} is periodic and determine its period.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1801.01542,
  title  = {Congruences of Power Sums},
  author = {Nicholas J. Newsome and Maria S. Nogin and Adnan H. Sabuwala},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.01542},
  year   = {2018}
}

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12 pages