Related papers: Supercongruences via Beukers' method

We establish supercongruences for two kinds of Ap\'ery-like numbers, which involve Bernoulli numbers and Bernoulli polynomials. Conjectural supercongruences of the same type for another four kinds of Ap\'ery-like numbers are also proposed.

Let $p$ be an odd prime and let $a,m$ be integers with $a>0$ and $m \not\equiv0\pmod p$. In this paper we determine $\sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}\binom{2k}{k+d}/m^k$ mod $p^2$ for $d=0,1$; for example,…

Suppose that $p$ is an odd prime and $m$ is an integer not divisible by $p$. Sun and Tauraso [Adv. in Appl. Math., 45(2010), 125--148] gave $\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}\binom{2k}{k+d}/m^k$ and $\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}\binom{2k}{k+d}/(km^k)$ modulo $p$ for…

It is known that the numbers which occur in Apery's proof of the irrationality of zeta(2) have many interesting congruence properties while the associated generating function satisfies a second order differential equation. We prove…

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…

For $A,B\in\mathbb Z$, the Lucas sequence $u_n(A,B)\ (n=0,1,2,\ldots)$ are defined by $u_0(A,B)=0$, $u_1(A,B)=1$, and $u_{n+1}(A,B) = Au_n(A,B)-Bu_{n-1}(A,B)$ $(n=1,2,3,\ldots).$ For any odd prime $p$ and positive integer $n$, we establish…

In this paper, we prove two recently conjectured supercongruences (modulo $p^3$, where $p$ is any prime greater than $3$) of Zhi-Hong Sun on truncated sums involving the Domb numbers. Our proofs involve a number of ingredients such as…

The Delannoy polynomial $D_n(x)$ is defined by $$ D_n(x)=\sum_{k=0}^{n}{n\choose k}{n+k\choose k}x^k. $$ We prove that, if $x$ is an integer and $p$ is a prime not dividing $x(x+1)$, then \begin{align*} \sum_{k=0}^{p-1}(2k+1)D_k(x)^3…

The Ap\'ery numbers may be defined by a cubic three-term recurrence relation, that is, a three-term relation where the coefficients are polynomials in the index of degree $3$. In this work, we first provide a systematic review of Ap\'ery…

In this paper, we evaluate some series of the form $$\sum_{k=1}^\infty\frac{ak^2+bk+c}{k(3k-1)(3k-2)m^k\binom{4k}k}.$$ For example, we prove that $$\sum_{k=1}^\infty\frac{(5k^2-4k+1)8^{k}}{k(3k-1)(3k-2)\binom{4k}k}=\frac{3}2\pi$$ and…

In this paper, we prove a congruence which confirms a conjecture of Adamchuk. For any prime $p\equiv1\pmod3$ and $a\in\mathbb{Z}^{+}$, we have \begin{align*} \sum_{k=1}^{\frac{2}3(p^a-1)}\binom{2k}k\equiv0\pmod{p^2}. \end{align*}

In this paper, we mainly prove the following conjectures of Z.-H. Sun \cite{SH2}: Let $p>3$ be a prime. If $p\equiv1\pmod3$ and $p=x^2+3y^2$, then we have $$…

The polynomials $d_n(x)$ are defined by \begin{align*} d_n(x) &= \sum_{k=0}^n{n\choose k}{x\choose k}2^k. \end{align*} We prove that, for any prime $p$, the following congruences hold modulo $p$: \begin{align*}…

By examining asymptotic behavior of certain infinite basic ($q$-) hypergeometric sums at roots of unity (that is, at a "$q$-microscopic" level) we prove polynomial congruences for their truncations. The latter reduce to non-trivial…

Let $p$ be an odd prime. In the paper we collect the author's various conjectures on congruences modulo $p$ or $p^2$, which are concerned with sums of binomial coefficients, Lucas sequences, power residues and special binary quadratic…

Let p be any prime, and let a and n be nonnegative integers. Let $r\in Z$ and $f(x)\in Z[x]$. We establish the congruence $$p^{\deg f}\sum_{k=r(mod p^a)}\binom{n}{k}(-1)^k f((k-r)/p^a) =0 (mod p^{\sum_{i=a}^{\infty}[n/p^i]})$$ (motivated by…

We present a method for obtaining congruences modulo powers of a prime number~$p$ for combinatorial sequences whose generating function satisfies an algebraic differential equation. This method generalises the one by Kauers and the authors…

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…

The Apery polynomials are defined by $A_n(x)=\sum_{k=0}^{n}{n\choose k}^2{n+k\choose k}^2 x^k$ for all nonnegative integers $n$. We confirm several conjectures of Z.-W. Sun on the congruences for the sum $\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(-1)^k(2k+1)…

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…