English

On the mod $p^7$ determination of ${2p-1\choose p-1}$

Number Theory 2018-04-10 v1

Abstract

In this paper we prove that for any prime p11p\ge 11 holds (2p1p1)12pk=1p11k+4p21i<jp11ij(modp7). {2p-1\choose p-1}\equiv 1 -2p \sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k} +4p^2\sum_{1\le i<j\le p-1}\frac{1}{ij}\pmod{p^7}. This is a generalization of the famous Wolstenholme's theorem which asserts that (2p1p1)1(modp3){2p-1\choose p-1} \equiv 1 \,\,(\bmod\,\,p^3) for all primes p5p\ge 5. Our proof is elementary and it does not use a standard technique involving the classic formula for the power sums in terms of the Bernoulli numbers. Notice that the above congruence reduced modulo p6p^6, p5p^5 and p4p^4 yields related congruences obtained by R. Tauraso, J. Zhao and J.W.L. Glaisher, respectively.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1108.1174,
  title  = {On the mod $p^7$ determination of ${2p-1\choose p-1}$},
  author = {Romeo Mestrovic},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1108.1174},
  year   = {2018}
}