Related papers: Generalized Legendre polynomials and related congr…

In this paper, we mainly establish a congruence for a sum involving Ap\'{e}ry numbers, which was conjectured by Z.-W. Sun. Namely, for any prime $p>3$ and positive odd integer $m$, we prove that there is a $p$-adic integer $c_m$ only…

The expression $a^n + b^n$ can be factored as $(a+b)(a^{n-1} - a^{n-2} b + a^{n-3} b^2 - ... + b^{n-1})$ when $n$ is an odd integer greater than one. This paper focuses on proving a few properties of the longer factor above, which we call…

Let $p$ be a prime and ${\mathfrak P}_p$ the set of positive integers which are prime to $p$. Recently, Wang and Cai proved that for every positive integer $r$ and prime $p>2$ $$ \sum_{\substack{i+j+k=p^r\\ i,j,k\in{\mathfrak P}_p}}…

Let $p$ be a prime, and let $n>0$ and $r$ be integers. In this paper we study Fleck's quotient $$F_p(n,r)=(-p)^{-\lfloor(n-1)/(p-1)\rfloor} \sum_{k=r(mod p)}\binom {n}{k}(-1)^k\in Z.$$ We determine $F_p(n,r)$ mod $p$ completely by certain…

The Franel numbers given by $f_n=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom{n}{k}^3$ ($n=0,1,2,\ldots$) play important roles in both combinatorics and number theory. In this paper we initiate the systematic investigation of fundamental congruences for the Franel…

In this paper we study recurrences concerning the combinatorial sum $[n,r]_m=\sum_{k\equiv r (mod m)}\binom {n}{k}$ and the alternate sum $\sum_{k\equiv r (mod m)}(-1)^{(k-r)/m}\binom{n}{k}$, where m>0, $n\ge 0$ and r are integers. For…

Let ${\mathbb Z}_p$ denote the ring of all $p$-adic integers and call $${\mathcal U}=\{(x_1,\ldots,x_n):\,a_1x_1+\ldots+a_nx_n+b=0\}$$ a hyperplane over ${\mathbb Z}_p^n$, where at least one of $a_1,\ldots,a_n$ is not divisible by $p$. We…

We give a short proof of the following known congruence: for every odd prime $p$ $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}{2k\choose k}^2 16^{-k}\equiv (-1)^{{p-1\over 2}}\pmod{p^2}.$$ Moreover, we provide some new results connected with the above congruence.

Suppose that $p$ is an odd prime and $\genfrac{(}{)}{}{}{\cdot}{p}$ denotes the Legendre symbol modulo $p$. If $p$ is has the form $p= n^2+1$ then one easily verifies that $\genfrac{(}{)}{}{}{a}{p} = \genfrac{(}{)}{}{}{-a}{p}$ for all $a\in…

We prove a strengthened form of a conjecture of Sun on a determinant attached to a binary quadratic form. Let $n>3$ and let $c,d\in\Z$. If $n$ is composite, then \[ \det\big[(i^2+cij+dj^2)^{n-2}\big]_{0\leq i,j\leq n-1}\equiv 0\pmod {n^2}…

We mainly introduce two new kinds of numbers given by $$R_n=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom nk\binom{n+k}k\frac1{2k-1}\quad\ (n=0,1,2,...)$$ and $$S_n=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom nk^2\binom{2k}k(2k+1)\quad\ (n=0,1,2,...).$$ We find that such numbers have many…

We prove that every multiplier sequence for the Legendre basis which can be interpolated by a polynomial has the form $\{h(k^2+k)\}_{k=0}^{\infty}$, where $h\in\mathbb{R}[x]$. We also prove that a non-trivial collection of polynomials of a…

Let $p$ be a sufficiently large prime number, $n$ be a positive odd integer with $n|\,p-1$ and $n>p^\varepsilon $, where $\varepsilon$ is a sufficiently small constant. Let $k(p,\,n)$ denote the least positive integer $k$ such that for…

In this paper we establish some new supercongruences motivated by the well-known fact $\lim_{n\to\infty}(1+1/n)^n=e$. Let $p>3$ be a prime. We prove that $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\binom{-1/(p+1)}k^{p+1}\equiv 0\ \pmod{p^5}\ \ \ \mbox{and}\ \ \…

Many generating series of combinatorially interesting numbers have the property that the sum of the terms of order $<p$ at some suitable point is congruent to a zero of a zeta-function modulo infinitely many primes $p$. Surprisingly, very…

Elementary symmetric polynomials $S_n^k$ are used as a benchmark for the bounded-depth arithmetic circuit model of computation. In this work we prove that $S_n^k$ modulo composite numbers $m=p_1p_2$ can be computed with much fewer…

Let $p>3$ be a prime, and let $d\in\mathbb Z$ with $p\nmid d$. For the determinants $$S_m(d,p)=\det\left[(i^2+dj^2)^{m}\right]_{1\leqslant i,j \leqslant (p-1)/2}\ \ \left(\frac{p-1}2\leqslant m\leqslant p-1\right),$$ Sun recently determined…

Let $m>2$ and $q>0$ be integers with $m$ even or $q$ odd. We show the supercongruence $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}(-1)^{km}\binom{p/m-q}{k}^m\equiv0\pmod{p^3}.$$ for any prime $p>mq$. This confirms a conjecture of Sun.

We study different q-analogues and generalizations of the ex-conjectures of Rodriguez-Villegas. For example, for any odd prime p, we show that the known congruence \sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{{2k\choose k}^2}{16^k} \equiv…

We show that if p is an odd prime then $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}E_kE_{p-1-k}=1 (mod p)$$ and $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-3}E_kE_{p-3-k}=(-1)^{(p-1)/2}2E_{p-3} (mod p),$$ where E_0,E_1,E_2,... are Euler numbers. Moreover, we prove that for any positive integer…