English

Lucas-type congruences for cyclotomic $\psi$-coefficients

Number Theory 2008-04-17 v4 Combinatorics

Abstract

Let p be any prime and a be a positive integer. For nonnegative integers l,n and an integer r, the normalized cyclotomic ψ\psi-coefficient n,rl,pa:=p[(npa1lpa)/(pa1(p1))]k=r(modpa)(1)k(nk)((kr)/pal){n,r}_{l,p^a}:=p^{-[(n-p^{a-1}-lp^a)/(p^{a-1}(p-1))]} \sum_{k=r(mod p^a)}(-1)^k{n \choose k}{{(k-r)/p^a} \choose l} is known to be an integer. In this paper, we show that this coefficient behaves like binomial coefficients and satisfies some Lucas-type congruences. This implies that a congruence of Wan is often optimal, and two conjectures of Sun and Davis are true.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0512012,
  title  = {Lucas-type congruences for cyclotomic $\psi$-coefficients},
  author = {Zhi-Wei Sun and Daqing Wan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0512012},
  year   = {2008}
}