English

Supercongruences for central trinomial coefficients

Number Theory 2026-03-16 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

For each n=0,1,2,n=0,1,2,\ldots, the central trinomial coefficient TnT_n is the coefficient of xnx^n in the expansion of (x2+x+1)n(x^2+x+1)^n. Let p>3p>3 be a prime, and let nn be any positive integer. In 2016, the second author conjectured that the quotient (TpnTn)/(pn)2(T_{pn}-T_n)/(pn)^2 is always a pp-adic integer. In this paper, we confirm this conjecture, and further prove that TpnTn(pn)2Tn16(p3)Bp2(13)(modp),\frac{T_{pn}-T_n}{(pn)^2}\equiv\frac{T_{n-1}}6\left(\frac p3\right)B_{p-2}\left(\frac13\right)\pmod p, where (p3)(\frac p3) is the Legendre symbol and Bp2(x)B_{p-2}(x) is the Bernoulli polynomial of degree p2p-2.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2012.05121,
  title  = {Supercongruences for central trinomial coefficients},
  author = {Hao Pan and Zhi-Wei Sun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.05121},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

9 pages, final version

R2 v1 2026-06-23T20:50:53.208Z