Related papers: Congruences concerning binomial coefficients and b…

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…

In 2003, Zhao discovered a curious congruence involving harmonic series and Bernoulli numbers: for any odd prime $p$, $$\sum_{\substack{i,j,k\ge 1\\\gcd(ijk,p)=1\\i+j+k=p}}\frac{1}{ijk}\equiv -2B_{p-3} \pmod{p},$$ where $B_n$ is the $n$-th…

For $n\in\mathbb{N}=\{0,1,2,\ldots\}$ and $b,c\in\mathbb{Z}$, the $n$th generalized central trinomial coefficient $T_n(b,c)$ is the coefficient of $x^n$ in the expansion of $(x^2+bx+c)^n$. In particular, $T_n=T_n(1,1)$ is the central…

Let $m$, $r$ and $n$ be positive integers. We denote by ${\bf k}\vdash n$ any tuple of odd positive integers ${\bf k}=(k_1,\dots,k_t)$ such that $k_1+\dots+k_t=n$ and $k_j\ge 3$ for all $j$. In this paper we prove that for every…

Let $p>3$ be a prime, and let $q_p(2)=(2^{p-1}-1)/p$ be the Fermat quotient of $p$ to base 2. Recently, Z. H. Sun proved that \sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k\cdot 2^k}\equiv q_p(2)-\frac{p}{2}q_p(2)^2 \pmod{p^2} which is a generalization of a…

The Delannoy numbers and Schr\"oder numbers are given by \begin{align*} D_n=\sum_{k=0}^n{n\choose k}{n+k\choose k}\quad \text{and}\quad S_n=\sum_{k=0}^n{n\choose k}{n+k\choose k}\frac{1}{k+1}, \end{align*} respectively. Let $p>3$ be a…

Let $n$ be a nonnegative integer. The $n$-th Ap\'{e}ry number is defined by $$ A_n:=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom{n+k}{k}^2\binom{n}{k}^2. $$ Z.-W. Sun ever investigated the congruence properties of Ap\'{e}ry numbers and posed some conjectures. For…

Many combinatorial sequences (for example, the Catalan and Motzkin numbers) may be expressed as the constant term of $P(x)^k Q(x)$, for some Laurent polynomials $P(x)$ and $Q(x)$ in the variable $x$ with integer coefficients. Denoting such…

Let $p>3$ be a prime, $a_1,a_2,a_3\in\Bbb Z$ and let $N_p(x^3+a_1x^2+a_2x+a_3)$ denote the number of solutions to the congruence $x^3+a_1x^2+a_2x+a_3\equiv 0\pmod p$. In this paper, we give an explicit criterion for…

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…

By a very simple argument, we prove that if $l,m,n$ are nonnegative integers then $$\sum_{k=0}^l(-1)^{m-k}\binom{l}{k}\binom{m-k}{n}\binom{2k}{k-2l+m} =\sum_{k=0}^l\binom{l}{k}\binom{2k}{n}\binom{n-l}{m+n-3k-l}. On the basis of this…

Let $p$ be an odd prime and let $m\not\equiv 0\pmod p$ be a rational p-adic integer. In this paper we reveal the connection between quartic residues and the sum $\sum_{k=0}^{[p/4]}\binom{4k}{2k}\frac 1{m^k}$, where $[x]$ is the greatest…

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}),…

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},…

In 2017, motivated by a supercongruence conjectured by Kimoto and Wakayama and confirmed by Long, Osburn and Swisher, Z.-W. Sun introduced the sequence of polynomials: $$…

We derive $p$-adic expansions for the generalized Harmonic numbers $H^{(j)}_{p-1}$ and $H^{(j)}_{\frac{p-1}{2}}$ involving the Bernoulli numbers $B_j$ and the the base-2 Fermat quotient $q_p$. While most of our results are not new, we…

In this paper, we prove that for any odd prime $p$ and for any $p$-integer $\alpha $,we have $ \binom{\alpha p-1}{p-1}\equiv 1-\alpha (\alpha -1)(\alpha ^{2}-\alpha -1)p\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k}+\alpha ^{2} (\alpha-1)^{2}p^{2}\sum_{1\leq…

In this paper we obtain some sophisticated combinatorial congruences involving binomial coefficients and confirm two conjectures of the author and Davis. They are closely related to our investigation of the periodicity of the sequence…

This article examines the nontrivial solutions of the congruence \[ (p-1)\cdots(p-r) \equiv -1 \pmod p. \] We discuss heuristics for the proportion of primes $p$ that have exactly $N$ solutions to this congruence. We supply numerical…

Z.-W. Sun introduced three kinds of numbers: \begin{align*}S_n=\sum_{k=0}^{n}{n\choose k}^2{2k\choose k}(2k+1),\qquad s_n=\sum_{k=0}^{n}{n\choose k}^2{2k\choose k}\frac{1}{2k-1}, \end{align*} and $S_n^{+}=\sum_{k=0}^{n}{n\choose…