Related papers: p-adic congruences motivated by series

For a positive integer $n$ let $H_n=\sum_{k=1}^{n}1/n$ be the $n$th harmonic number. In this note we prove that for any prime $p\ge 7$, $$ \sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{H_k}{k^2}\equiv \sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{H_k^2}{k}…

In 2014, Wang and Cai established the following harmonic congruence for any odd prime $p$ and positive integer $r$, \begin{equation*} Z(p^{r})\equiv-2p^{r-1}B_{p-3} ~(\bmod ~ p^{r}), \end{equation*} where $…

Let k>1 be an integer and let p be a prime. We show that if $p^a\le k<2p^a$ or $k=p^aq+1$ (with 2q<p) for some a=1,2,..., then the set {\binom{n}{k}: n=0,1,2,...} is dense in the ring Z_p of p-adic integers, i.e., it contains a complete…

For a prime $p\equiv 3$ $(\text{mod }4)$, let $h(-8p)$ and $h(8p)$ be the class numbers of $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-2p})$ and $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2p})$, respectively. Let $\Psi(\xi)$ be the Hirzebruch sum of a quadratic irrational $\xi$. We show…

During the study of dual sequences, Sun introduced the polynomials \[ D_n(x,y)=\sum_{k=0}^{n}{n\choose k}{x\choose k}y^k\text{ and } S_n(x,y)=\sum_{k=0}^{n}\binom{n}{k}\binom{x}{k}\binom{-1-x}{k} y^k. \] Many related congruences have been…

A frequently cited theorem says that for n > 0 and prime p, the sum of the first p n-th powers is congruent to -1 modulo p if p-1 divides n, and to 0 otherwise. We survey the main ingredients in several known proofs. Then we give an…

We prove that if the signed binomial coefficient $(-1)^i\binom{k}{i}$ viewed modulo p is a periodic function of i with period h prime to p in the range $0\le i\le k$, then k+1 is a power of p, provided h is not too large compared to k. (In…

For all nonnegative integers n, the Franel numbers are defined as $$ f_n=\sum_{k=0}^n {n\choose k}^3.$$ We confirm two conjectures of Z.-W. Sun on congruences for Franel numbers: \sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(3k+2)(-1)^k f_k &\equiv 0 \pmod{2n^2},…

Let $p\equiv 1 \pmod{4}$ be a prime. Write $t = \prod_{x=1}^{(p-1)/2}x$. Since $t ^2\equiv -1 \pmod{p}$ , we can divide $\{1,2,\ldots,(p-1)/2\}$ into $(p-1)/4$ ordered pairs so that each pair, say $<a,\tilde{a}>$ , satisfies that $t a…

Given an odd prime p, we prove a congruence on the p-residue of the Fermat quotient q_p(a) in base a with 0<a<p, which arises from a generalization of the Voronoi congruences and from some other congruences on sums and weighted sums of…

Let $C_n$ be the $n$th Catalan number. We show that the asymptotic density of the set $\{n: C_n \equiv 0 \mod p \}$ is $1$ for all primes $p$, We also show that if $n = p^k -1$ then $C_n \equiv -1 \mod p$. Finally we show that if $n \equiv…

Let $M_n$ and $T_n$ denote the $n$th Motzkin number and the $n$th central trinomial coefficient respectively. We prove that for any prime $p\ge 5$, \begin{align*} &\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}M_k^2\equiv…

We prove that at least one of the six numbers $\beta(2i)$ for $i=1,\dots,6$ is irrational. Here $\beta(s)=\sum_{k=0}^\infty(-1)^k(2k+1)^{-s}$ denotes Dirichlet's beta function, so that $\beta(2)$ is Catalan's constant.

The following theorem is proved. {\bf Theorem.} {\it Let $P(x) = \sum_{k=0}^{2n} a_k x^k$ be a polynomial with positive coefficients. If the inequalities $\frac{a_{2k+1}^2}{a_{2k}a_{2k+ 2}} < \frac{1}{cos^2(\frac{\pi}{n+2})} $ hold for all…

Let ${\mathcal{P}_{n}}$ denote the set of positive integers which are prime to $n$. Let $B_{n}$ be the $n$-th Bernoulli number. For any prime $p\ge 5$ and $r\ge 2$, we prove that \begin{equation} \sum\limits_{\begin{smallmatrix}…

In 2014, Wang and Cai established the following harmonic congruence for any odd prime $p$ and positive integer $r$, \begin{equation*} \sum\limits_{i+j+k=p^{r}\atop{i,j,k\in \mathcal{P}_{p}}}\frac{1}{ijk}\equiv-2p^{r-1}B_{p-3} ~(\bmod ~…

Kemnitz Conjecture [9] states that if we take a sequence of elements in $Z_{p}^{2}$ of length $4p-3$, $p$ is a prime number, then it has a subsequence of length $p$, whose sum is $0$ modulo $p$. It is known that in $Z_{p}^{3}$ to get a…

It is an open problem whether $ \binom{2n}{n} $ is divisible by 4 or 9 for all $n>256$. In connection with this, we prove that for a fixed uneven $m$ the asymptotic density of $k$'s such that $ m \nmid \binom{2^{k+1}}{2^{k}} $ is 0. To do…

In 2014, Wang and Cai established the following harmonic congruence for any odd prime $p$ and positive integer $r$, \begin{equation*} \sum\limits_{i+j+k=p^{r}\atop{i,j,k\in \mathcal{P}_{p}}}\frac{1}{ijk}\equiv-2p^{r-1}B_{p-3} (\bmod p^{r}),…

Let $p$ be an odd prime and $r\geq 1$. Suppose that $\alpha$ is a $p$-adic integer with $\alpha\equiv2a\pmod p$ for some $1\leq a<(p+r)/(2r+1)$. We confirm a conjecture of Sun and prove that…