English

Structured Solutions of Prime-Base Binomial Congruences

Number Theory 2026-06-29 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

In this paper, we study the congruence (qnn)qn(modn)\binom{qn}{n} \equiv q^n \pmod n for a prime base qq. Motivated by the OEIS sequence \seqnum{A080469} and the conjectural existence of infinitely many ternary solutions of the form n=3tpn=3^t p, we analyze the more general family n=qtpn=q^t p, where pqp\neq q is prime. Our main result shows that, in this family, the congruence is equivalent to two independent conditions: a congruence modulo pp and an inequality in the sum of the digits. This reduces the search for such solutions to factoring an explicit integer and applying a base-qq digit-sum filter. We use this criterion to produce new large solutions for q{2,3,5,7,11}q\in\{2,3,5,7,11\}. We also prove that square solutions n=p2n=p^2 are exactly governed by Wieferich primes in base qq.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2606.30232,
  title  = {Structured Solutions of Prime-Base Binomial Congruences},
  author = {Gabriel Araújo Guedes and Ricardo Nunes Machado Junior},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.30232},
  year   = {2026}
}