English

Banach matchboxes problem and a congruence for primes

History and Overview 2011-10-27 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

Using an identity arising in the known Banach probability problem on matchboxes, we prove an unexpected congruence for odd prime p:p: for 1kp12,i=1p2k12i1(k1+ik)0(modp).1\leq k\leq \frac{p-1}{2},\enskip \sum_{i=1}^{p-2k-1}2^{i-1}\binom{k-1+i}{k}\equiv 0\pmod p.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1110.5686,
  title  = {Banach matchboxes problem and a congruence for primes},
  author = {Vladimir Shevelev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1110.5686},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

2 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:25:44.941Z