Related papers: Modular periodicity of binomial coefficients

Let $K$ be a number field, and let $G\subset K^\times$ be a finitely generated subgroup. Fix some prime number $\ell$, and consider the set of primes $\mathfrak{p}$ of $K$ satisfying the following property: the reduction of $G$ modulo…

Let p be a prime and suppose that K/F is a cyclic extension of degree p^n with group G. Let J be the F_pG-module K^*/K^{*p} of pth-power classes. In our previous paper we established precise conditions for J to contain an indecomposable…

Let p be a prime, K a field of characteristic p, G a locally finite p-group, KG the group algebra, and V the group of the units of KG with augmentation 1. The anti-automorphism g\mapsto g^{-1} of G extends linearly to KG; this extension…

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…

Let $p>5$ be a prime. We prove congruences modulo $p^{3-d}$ for sums of the general form $\sum_{k=0}^{(p-3)/2}\binom{2k}{k}t^k/(2k+1)^{d+1}$ and $\sum_{k=1}^{(p-1)/2}\binom{2k}{k}t^k/k^d$ with $d=0,1$. We also consider the special case…

Let $p$ be a prime number and $k$ be a positive integer not divisible by $p$. We describe the Heller translates of the periodic Lie module $\mathrm{Lie}(pk)$ in characteristic $p$ and show that it has period $2p-2$ when $p$ is odd and $1$…

We completely characterise when the sequence of free subgroup numbers of a finitely generated virtually free group is ultimately periodic modulo a given prime power.

We state a general formula for the number of binomial coefficients $n$ choose $k$ that are divided by a fixed power of a prime $p$, i.e., the number of binomial coefficients divided by $p^j$ and not divided by $p^{j+1}$.

For a prime $p$ and an integer $x$, the $p$-adic valuation of $x$ is denoted by $\nu_{p}(x)$. For a polynomial $Q$ with integer coefficients, the sequence of valuations $\nu_{p}(Q(n))$ is shown to be either periodic or unbounded. The first…

If p is a prime and n a positive integer, let v(n) denote the exponent of p in n, and u(n)=n/p^{v(n)} the unit part of n. If k is a positive integer not divisible by p, we show that the p-adic limit of (-1)^{pke} u((kp^e)!) as e goes to…

Let $m$ and $k \geq 2$ be positive integers. We show that polynomial $P = (1+x)^m(1+x^k)$ is strongly unimodal (frequently known as {\it log concave\/}) if and only if $m \geq k^2 -3$; this is also the criterion for $P$ to be merely…

We prove that if $q$ is a power of a prime $p$ and $p^k$ divides $a$, with $k\ge 0$, then \[ 1+(q-1)\sum_{0\le b(q-1)<a} \binom{a}{b(q-1)}\equiv 0\pmod{p^{k+1}}. \] The special case of this congruence where $q=p$ was proved by Carlitz in…

Binomial coefficients and central trinomial coefficients play important roles in combinatorics. Let $p>3$ be a prime. We show that $$T_{p-1}\equiv\left(\frac p3\right)3^{p-1}\ \pmod{p^2},$$ where the central trinomial coefficient $T_n$ is…

For a large prime $p$, and a polynomial $f$ over a finite field $F_p$ of $p$ elements, we obtain a lower bound on the size of the multiplicative subgroup of $F_p^*$ containing $H\ge 1$ consecutive values $f(x)$, $x = u+1, \ldots, u+H$,…

Let $f(x) \in \mathbb{F}_p[x]$, and define the orbit of $x\in \mathbb{F}_p$ under the iteration of $f$ to be the set \[ \mathcal{O}(x):=\{x,f(x),(f\circ f)(x),(f\circ f\circ f)(x),\dots\}. \] An orbit is a $k$-cycle if it is periodic of…

In this paper we establish some sophisticated congruences involving central binomial coefficients and Fibonacci numbers. For example, we show that if $p\not=2,5$ is a prime then $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}F_{2k}\binom{2k}{k}=(-1)^{[p/5]}(1-(p/5))…

In this paper we prove that for any prime $p\ge 11$ holds $$ {2p-1\choose p-1}\equiv 1 -2p \sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k} +4p^2\sum_{1\le i<j\le p-1}\frac{1}{ij}\pmod{p^7}. $$ This is a generalization of the famous Wolstenholme's theorem which…

Let p(n, k) denote the number of partitions of n into parts less than or equal to k. We show several properties of this function modulo 2. First, we prove that for fixed positive integers k and m, p(n,k) is periodic modulo m. Using this, we…

We show that $\bigoplus_{n \ge 0} {\mathrm H}^t({\bf GL}_n({\bf F}_q), {\bf F}_\ell)$ canonically admits the structure of a module over the $q$-divided power algebra (assuming $q$ is invertible in ${\bf F}_{\ell}$), and that, as such, it is…

For a polynomial map $\mathbf{f} : k^n \to k^m$ ($k$ a field), we investigate those polynomials $g \in k[t_1,\ldots, t_n]$ that can be written as a composition $g = h \circ \mathbf{f}$, where $h: k^m \to k$ is an arbitrary function. In the…