Related papers: Combinatorial congruences modulo prime powers

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…

It is shown that for any prime $p$ and any natural numbers $\ell, m,$ and $s$ such that $0<s<p$, the three following congruences \begin{align*}\sum_{i\ge \ell+1}(-1)^{m-i} {m \choose i}{m+s-1+i(p-1) \choose m+s-1+\ell(p-1)} &\equiv 0 \bmod…

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*}

The sequence $A(n)_{n \geq 0}$ of Ap\'ery numbers can be interpolated to $\mathbb{C}$ by an entire function. We give a formula for the Taylor coefficients of this function, centered at the origin, as a $\mathbb{Z}$-linear combination of…

Let $p>3$ be a prime. In this paper, we obtain the congruences for $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{w(k)\binom{2k}k^3}{(-8)^k},\ \sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{w(k)\binom{2k}k^2\binom{3k}k}{(-192)^k},\…

Let $P,Q\in\Bbb Z$, $U_0=0,\ U_1=1$ and $U_{n+1}=PU_n-QU_{n+1}$. In this paper we obtain a general congruence for $U_{kmn^r}/U_k\pmod {n^{r+1}}$, where $k,m,n,r$ are positive integers. As applications we extend Lucas' law of repetition and…

In recent years, the congruence $$ \sum_{\substack{i+j+k=p\\ i,j,k>0}} \frac1{ijk} \equiv -2 B_{p-3} \pmod{p}, $$ first discovered by the last author have been generalized by either increasing the number of indices and considering the…

Let $p$ be an odd prime. Define the Gaussian power sum \[ G_n(p)=\sum_{a=1}^{p-1}\sum_{b=1}^{p-1}(a+bi)^n\in\mathbb Z[i]. \] We determine $G_p(p)$ modulo high powers of $p$: if $p\equiv 1\pmod 4$ then $$G_p(p)\equiv p^2(1+i)\pmod{p^3},$$…

We primarily investigate congruences modulo $p$ for finite sums of the form $\sum_k\binom{rk}{k}x^k/k$ over the ranges $0<k<p$ and $0<k<p/r$, where $p$ is a prime larger than the positive integer $r$. Here $x$ is an indeterminate, thus…

Let p be a prime, and let n>0 and r be integers. In 1913 Fleck showed that $$F_p(n,r)=(-p)^{-[(n-1)/(p-1)]}\sum_{k=r(mod p)}\binom{n}{k}(-1)^k\in\Z.$$ Nowadays this result plays important roles in many aspects. Recently Sun and Wan…

Let $p>5$ be a prime. Motivated by the known formulae $\sum_{k=1}^\infty(-1)^k/(k^3\binom{2k}{k})=-2\zeta(3)/5$ and $\sum_{k=0}^\infty \binom{2k}{k}^2/((2k+1)16^k)=4G/\pi$$ (where $G=\sum_{k=0}^\infty(-1)^k/(2k+1)^2$ is the Catalan…

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…

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,…

A prime number $p$ is said to be a Wolstenholme prime if it satisfies the congruence ${2p-1\choose p-1} \equiv 1 \,\,(\bmod{\,\,p^4})$. For such a prime $p$, we establish the expression for ${2p-1\choose p-1}\,\,(\bmod{\,\,p^8})$ given in…

Let $p$ be an odd prime, and let $m$ be an integer with $p\nmid m$. In this paper show that $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{\binom{2k}k\binom ak\binom{-1-a}k}{m^k} \equiv 0\pmod p \quad\hbox{implies}\quad\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{\binom{2k}k\binom ak…

In this paper, we study some supercongruences involving the sequence $$ t_n(x)=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom{n}{k}\binom{x}{k}\binom{x+k}{k}2^k $$ and solve some open problems. For any odd prime $p$ and $p$-adic integer $x$, we determine…

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 the present paper we obtain new upper bound estimates for the number of solutions of the congruence $$ x\equiv y r\pmod p;\quad x,y\in \mathbb{N},\quad x,y\le H,\quad r\in\cU, $$ for certain ranges of $H$ and $|\cU|$, where $\cU$ is a…

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…

In [16], we obtained some congruences for Lucas quotients of two infinite families of Lucas sequences by studying the combinatorial sum $$\sum_{k\equiv r(\mbox{mod}m)}{n\choose k}a^k.$$ In this paper, we show that the sum can be expressed…