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 p\\ \sum_{i\ge 0}(-1)^{m-i} {m \choose i}{\ell+ip \choose m+s-1}&\equiv 0 \bmod p^m\\ \sum_{j,i\ge \ell}(-1)^{j-i}{m \choose j} {j \choose i}{j+s-1+i(p-1) \choose j+s-1+\ell(p-1)}&\equiv 0 \bmod p^{m-\ell} \end{align*} hold true. The corresponding quotients involve Adelberg polynomials which can be computed explicitly, providing closed-form expressions for these sums, valid even if $p$ is not prime, when the congruences do not necessarily hold.
We study the well-known lacunary sums of binomial coefficients considered, most notably, by Christian Ramus, and their connection to a special kind of harmonic number associated with the first case of Fermat's Last Theorem. For one case of Ramus's famous identity we obtain a variation in which some of the parameters are replaced by square matrices of arbitrary dimension.
In this paper, we prove a divisibility result for the lacunary $q$-binomial sum $$ \sum_{k\equiv r\pmod{c}}(-1)^kq^{\binom{k}{2}}\qbinom{n}{k}{q}\qbinom{(k-r)/c}{l}{q^{c}}. $$
Using generalized binomial coefficients with respect to fundamental Lucas sequences we establish congruences that generalize the classical congruence of Wolstenholme and other related stronger congruences.
We present several congruences modulo a power of prime $p$ concerning sums of the following type $\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}{m^k\over k^r}{2k\choose k}^{-1}$ which reveal some interesting connections with the analogous infinite series.
In this paper, we study congruences on sums of products of binomial coefficients that can be proved by using properties of the Jacobi polynomials. We give special attention to polynomial congruences containing Catalan numbers, second-order Catalan numbers, the sequence (\seqnum{A176898}) $S_n=\frac{{6n\choose 3n}{3n\choose 2n}}{2{2n\choose n}(2n+1)},$ and the binomial coefficients ${3n\choose n}$ and ${4n\choose 2n}$. As an application, we address several conjectures of Z.\ W.\ Sun on congruences of sums involving $S_n$ and we prove a cubic residuacity criterion in terms of sums of the binomia…
Recently, Ni and Pan proved a $q$-congruence on certain sums involving central $q$-binomial coefficients, which was conjectured by Guo. In this paper, we give a generalization of this $q$-congruence and confirm another $q$-congruence, also conjectured by Guo. Our proof uses Ni and Pan's technique and a simple $q$-congruence observed by Guo and Schlosser.
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 all $d=0,1, \ldots n$ and $n= p^a$, where $a$ is a positive integer. In this paper, we present some $q$-analogues of these congruences in the cases $m=2, 4$ for any positive integer $n$.
We will prove several congruences modulo a power of a prime such as $$ \sum_{0<k_1<...<k_{n}<p}\leg{p-k_{n}}{3} {(-1)^{k_{n}}\over k_1... k_{n}}\equiv {lll} -{2^{n+1}+2\over 6^{n+1}} p B_{p-n-1}({1\over 3}) &\pmod{p^2} &{if $n$ is odd} -{2^{n+1}+4\over n6^n} B_{p-n}({1\over 3}) &\pmod{p} &{if $n$ is even}. $$ where $n$ is a positive integer and $p$ is prime such that $p>\max(n+1,3)$.
Let $p$ be a prime with $p>3$, and let $a,b$ be two rational $p-$integers. In this paper we present general congruences for $\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\binom ak\binom{-1-a}k\frac p{k+b}\pmod {p^2}$. For $n=0,1,2,\ldots$ let $D_n$ and $b_n$ be Domb and Almkvist-Zudilin numbers, respectively. We also establish congruences for $$\sum_{n=0}^{p-1}\frac{D_n}{16^n},\quad \sum_{n=0}^{p-1}\frac{D_n}{4^n}, \quad \sum_{n=0}^{p-1}\frac{b_n}{(-3)^n},\quad \sum_{n=0}^{p-1}\frac{b_n}{(-27)^n}\pmod {p^2}$$ in terms of certain binary quadratic forms.
We establish $q$-analogs for four congruences involving central binomial coefficients. The $q$-identities necessary for this purpose are shown via the $q$-WZ method.
Andrews once gave $q$-analogues of a binomial congruence of Glaisher, and he suggested perfect $q$-analogues. In this note we give ones meeting the demand of Andrews.
We establish a $q$-analogue of Sun--Zhao's congruence on harmonic sums. Based on this $q$-congruence and a $q$-series identity, we prove a congruence conjecture on sums of central $q$-binomial coefficients, which was recently proposed by Guo. We also deduce a $q$-analogue of a congruence due to Apagodu and Zeilberger from Guo's $q$-congruence.
We prove a $q$-analog of a classical binomial congruence due to Ljunggren which states that \[ \binom{a p}{b p} \equiv \binom{a}{b} \] modulo $p^3$ for primes $p\ge5$. This congruence subsumes and builds on earlier congruences by Babbage, Wolstenholme and Glaisher for which we recall existing $q$-analogs. Our congruence generalizes an earlier result of Clark.
The aim of this work is to establish congruences $\left( \operatorname{mod}p^{2}\right) $ involving the trinomial coefficients $\binom{np-1}{p-1}_{2}$ and $\binom{np-1}{\left( p-1\right)/2}_{2}$ arising from the expansion of the powers of the polynomial $1+x+x^{2}.$ In main results we extend some known congruences involving the binomial coefficients $\binom{np-1}{p-1}$ and $\binom{np-1}{\left( p-1\right) /2}$ and establish congruences link binomial coefficients and harmonic numbers.
The q-binomial coefficients are the polynomial cousins of the traditional binomial coefficients, and a number of identities for binomial coefficients can be translated into this polynomial setting. For instance, the familiar vanishing of the alternating sum across row n of Pascal's triangle is captured by the so-called Gaussian Formula. In this paper, we find a q-binomial congruence which synthesizes this result and Fleck's congruence for binomial coefficients.
In this paper we obtain some congruences involving central binomial coefficients and Lucas sequences. For example, we show that if p>5 is a prime then $\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}F_k*binom(2k,k)/12^k$ is congruent to 0,1,-1 modulo p according as p=1,4 (mod 5), p=13,17 (mod 30), and p=7,23 (mod 30) respectively, where {F_n} is the Fibonacci sequence. We also raise several conjectures.
For $n=0,1,2,\ldots$ let $W_n=\sum_{k=0}^{[n/3]}\binom{2k}k \binom{3k}k\binom n{3k}(-3)^{n-3k}$, where $[x]$ is the greatest integer not exceeding $x$. Then $\{W_n\}$ is an Apéry-like sequence. In this paper we deduce many congruences involving $\{W_n\}$, in particular we determine $\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\binom{2k}k\frac{W_k}{m^k}\pmod p$ for $m=-640332,-5292,-972,-108,-44,-27,-12,8,54,243$ by using binary quadratic forms, where $p>3$ is a prime. We also prove several congruences for generalized Apéry-like numbers, and pose 29 challenging conjectures on congruences involving binomial coefficients an…
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 elementary proof, using an identity for power sums proven by Pascal in 1654. An application is a simple proof of a congruence for certain sums of binomial coefficients, due to Hermite and Bachmann.
In this paper, we will present several new congruences involving binomial coefficients under integer moduli, which are the continuation of the previous two work by Cai \textit{et al.} (2002, 2007).
We discuss $q$-analogues of the classical congruence $\binom{ap}{bp}\equiv\binom{a}{b}\pmod{p^3}$, valid for primes $p>3$, as well as its generalisations. In particular, we prove related congruences for ($q$-analogues of) integral factorial ratios.
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 the constant term in the expansion of $(1+x+x^{-1})^n$. We also prove three congruences modulo $p^3$ conjectured by Sun, one of which is $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\binom{p-1}k\binom{2k}k((-1)^k-(-3)^{-k})\equiv \left(\frac p3\right)(3^{p-1}-1)\ \pmod{p^3}.$$ In addition, we get some new combinatorial identities.
Let q>1 and m>0 be relatively prime integers. We find an explicit period $ν_m(q)$ such that for any integers n>0 and r we have $[n+ν_m(q),r]_m(a)=[n,r]_m(a) (mod q)$ whenever a is an integer with $\gcd(1-(-a)^m,q)=1$, or a=-1 (mod q), or a=1 (mod q) and 2|m, where $[n,r]_m(a)=\sum_{k=r(mod m)}\binom{n}{k}a^k$. This is a further extension of a congruence of Glaisher.
Recently the first author proved a congruence proposed in 2006 by Adamchuk: $\sum_{k=1}^{\lfloor\frac{2p}{3}\rfloor}\binom{2k}{k}\equiv 0\pmod{p^2}$ for any prime $p=1 \pmod{3}$. In this paper, we provide more examples (with proofs) of congruences of the same kind $$\sum_{k=1}^{\lfloor\frac{ap}{r}\rfloor}\binom{2k}{k}x^k \pmod{p^2}$$ where $p$ is a prime such that $p\equiv 1 \pmod{r}$, $a/r$ is a fraction in $(1/2,1)$ and $x$ is a $p$-adic integer. The key ingredients are the $p$-adic Gamma functions $Γ_p$ and a special class of computer-discovered hypergeometric identities.
Let $t\in\mathbb{N}_+$ be given. In this article we are interested in characterizing those $d\in\mathbb{N}_+$ such that the congruence $$\frac{1}{t}\sum_{s=0}^{t-1}{n+dζ_t^s\choose d-1}\equiv {n\choose d-1}\pmod{d}$$ is true for each $n\in\mathbb{Z}$. In particular, assuming that $d$ has a prime divisor greater than $t$, we show that the above congruence holds for each $n\in\mathbb{Z}$ if and only if $d=p^r$, where $p$ is a prime number greater than $t$ and $r\in\{1,\ldots ,t\}$.
In this paper we establish some new congruences involving central binomial coefficients as well as Catalan numbers. Let $p$ be a prime and let $a$ be any positive integer. We determine $\sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}\binom{2k}{k+d}$ mod $p^2$ for $d=0,...,p^a$ and $\sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}\binom{2k}{k+δ}$ mod $p^3$ for $δ=0,1$. We also show that $$C_n^{-1}\sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}C_{p^an+k}=1-3(n+1)((p^a-1)/3) (mod p^2)$$ for every n=0,1,2,..., where $C_m$ is the Catalan number $\binom{2m}{m}/(m+1)$, and (-) is the Legendre symbol.
Let $p>3$ be a prime, and let $a$ be a rational $p$-adic integer, using WZ method we establish the congruences modulo $p^3$ for $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1} \binom ak\binom{-1-a}k\binom{2k}k\frac {w(k)}{4^k},$$ where $$w(k)=1,\frac 1{k+1},\frac 1{(k+1)^2},\frac 1{(k+1)^3},\frac 1{2k-1},\frac 1{k+2}, \frac 1{k+3}, k,k^2,k^3,\frac 1{a+k},\frac 1{a+k-1}.$$ As consequences, taking $a=-\frac 12,-\frac 13,-\frac 14,-\frac 16$ we deduce many congruences modulo $p^3$ and so solve some conjectures posed by the author earlier.
In this paper, we prove two conjectures of Z.-W. Sun: $$2n\binom{2n}n\big|\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(3k+1)\binom{2k}k^3{16}^{n-1-k}\ \mbox{for}\ \mbox{all}\ n=2,3,\cdots,$$ and $$\sum_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{3k+1}{16^k}\binom{2k}{k}^3\equiv p+2\left(\frac{-1}{p}\right)p^3E_{p-3}\pmod{p^4},$$ where $p>3$ is a prime and $E_0,E_1,E_2,\cdots$ are Euler numbers.
In a recent article, Apagodu and Zeilberger (http://arxiv.org/abs/1606.03351)discuss some applications of an algorithm for finding and proving congruence identities (modulo primes) of indefinite sums of many combinatorial sequence. At the end, they propose some supercongruences as conjectures. Here we prove one of them, including a new companion enumerating abelian squares, and we leave some remarks for the others.
Let $p>3$ be a prime. In this paper, we obtain the congruences for $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{w(k)\binom{2k}k^3}{(-8)^k},\ \sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{w(k)\binom{2k}k^2\binom{3k}k}{(-192)^k},\ \sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{w(k)\binom{2k}k^2\binom{4k}{2k}}{(-144)^k}\ \text{and} \ \sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{w(k)\binom{2k}k^2\binom{4k}{2k}}{648^k}$$ modulo $p^2$, and partial results for $\sum_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2} \binom{2k}k^3\frac{w(k)}{m^k}$ modulo $p^2$, where $m\in\{1,16,-64,256,-512,4096\}$ and $w(k)\in\{k^2,k^3,\frac 1{k+1},\frac 1{(k+1)^2},\frac 1{(k+1)^3}, \frac 1{2k-1},\frac 1{k+2}\}$.
Motivated by recent works of Sun and Tauraso, we prove some variations on the Green-Krammer identity involving central q-binomial coefficients, such as $$ \sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(-1)^kq^{-{k+1\choose 2}}{2k\brack k}_q \equiv (\frac{n}{5}) q^{-\lfloor n^4/5\rfloor} \pmod{Φ_n(q)}, $$ where $\big(\frac{n}{p}\big)$ is the Legendre symbol and $Φ_n(q)$ is the $n$th cyclotomic polynomial. As consequences, we deduce that $$ \sum_{k=0}^{3^a m-1} q^{k}{2k\brack k}_q &\equiv 0 \pmod{(1-q^{3^a})/(1-q)}, \sum_{k=0}^{5^a m-1}(-1)^kq^{-{k+1\choose 2}}{2k\brack k}_q &\equiv 0 \pmod{(1-q^{5^a})/(1-q)}, $$ for $a,m\ge…
It is known that $\sum_{k=0}^\infty\binom{2k}{k}/((2k+1)4^k)=π/2$ and $\sum_{k=0}^\infty\binom{2k}{k}/((2k+1)16^k)=π/3$. In this paper we obtain their p-adic analogues such as $$\sum_{p/2<k<p}\binom{2k}{k}/((2k+1)4^k)=3\sum_{p/2<k<p}\binom{2k}{k}/((2k+1)16^k)= pE_{p-3} (mod p^2),$$ where p>3 is a prime and E_0,E_1,E_2,... are Euler numbers. Besides these, we also deduce some other congruences related to central binomial coefficients. In addition, we pose some conjectures one of which states that for any odd prime p we have $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\binom{2k}{k}^3=4x^2-2p (mod p^2)$$ if (p/7)=1 and p=…
In 1878 É. Lucas proved a remarkable result which provides a simple way to compute the binomial coefficient ${n\choose m}$ modulo a prime $p$ in terms of the binomial coefficients of the base-$p$ digits of $n$ and $m$: {\it If $p$ is a prime, $n=n_0+n_1p+\cdots +n_sp^s$ and $m=m_0+m_1p+\cdots +m_sp^s$ are the $p$-adic expansions of nonnegative integers $n$ and $m$, then \begin{equation*} {n\choose m}\equiv \prod_{i=0}^{s}{n_i\choose m_i}\pmod{p}. \end{equation*}} The above congruence, the so-called {\it Lucas' theorem} (or {\it Theorem of Lucas}), plays an important role in Number Theory and C…
We produce congruences modulo a prime $p>3$ for sums $\sum_k\binom{3k}{k}x^k$ over ranges $0\le k<q$ and $0\le k<q/3$, where $q$ is a power of $p$. Here $x$ equals either $c^2/(1-c)^3$, or $4s^2/\bigl(27(s^2-1)\bigr)$, where $c$ and $s$ are indeterminates. In the former case we deal more generally with shifted binomial coefficients $\binom{3k+e}{k}$. Our method derives such congruences directly from closed forms for the corresponding series.
Let p be any odd prime. We mainly show that $$\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}binomial(3k,k)*2^k/k=0 (mod p)$$ and $$\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}2^{k-1}C_k^{(2)}=(-1)^{(p-1)/2}-1 (mod p),$$ where $C_k^{(2)}=binomial(3k,k)/(2k+1)$ is the $k$th Catalan number of order 2.
Let p be a prime and let a be a positive integer. In this paper we determine $\sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}\binom{2k}{k+d}/m^k$ and $\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\binom{2k}{k+d}/(km^{k-1})$ modulo $p$ for all d=0,...,p^a, where m is any integer not divisible by p. For example, we show that if $p\not=2,5$ then $$\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}(-1)^k\frac{\binom{2k}k}k=-5\frac{F_{p-(\frac p5)}}p (mod p),$$ where F_n is the n-th Fibonacci number and (-) is the Jacobi symbol. We also prove that if p>3 then $$\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{\binom{2k}k}k={8/9} p^2B_{p-3} (mod p^3),$$ where B_n denotes the n-th Bernoulli number.
In this paper, we confirm several conjectured congruences of Sun concerning the divisibility of binomial sums. For example, with help of a quadratic hypergeometric transformation, we prove that $$ \sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\binom{p-1}k\binom{2k}k^2\frac{P_k}{8^k}\equiv0\pmod{p^2} $$ for any prime $p\equiv 7\mod{8}$, where $P_k$ is the $k$-th Pell number. Further, we also propose three new congruences of the same type.
Let $[x]$ be the integral part of $x$, $n>1$ be a positive integer and $χ_n$ denote the trivial Dirichlet character modulo $n$. In this paper, we use an identity established by Z. H. Sun to get congruences of $T_{m,k}(n)=\sum_{x=1}^{[n/m]}\frac{χ_n(x)}{x^k}\left(\bmod n^{r+1}\right)$ for $r\in \{1,2\}$, any positive integer $m $ with $n \equiv \pm 1 \left(\bmod m \right)$ in terms of Bernoulli polynomials. As its an application, we also obtain some new congruences involving binomial coefficients modulo $n^4$ in terms of generalized Bernoulli numbers.
We prove that, if $m,n\geqslant 1$ and $a_1,\ldots,a_m$ are nonnegative integers, then \begin{align*} \frac{[a_1+\cdots+a_m+1]!}{[a_1]!\ldots[a_m]!}\sum^{n-1}_{h=0}q^h\prod_{i=1}^m{h\brack a_i} \equiv 0\pmod{[n]}, \end{align*} where $[n]=\frac{1-q^n}{1-q}$, $[n]!=[n][n-1]\cdots[1]$, and ${a\brack b}=\prod_{k=1}^b\frac{1-q^{a-k+1}}{1-q^k}$. The $a_1=\cdots=a_m$ case confirms a recent conjecture of Z.-W. Sun. We also show that, if $p>\max\{a,b\}$ is a prime, then \begin{align*} \frac{[a+b+1]!}{[a]![b]!}\sum_{h=0}^{p-1}q^h{h\brack a}{h\brack b} \equiv (-1)^{a-b} q^{ab-{a\choose 2}-{b\choose 2}}[p…
In this paper, we pose lots of challenging conjectures on congruences for the sums involving binomial coefficients and Apéry-like numbers modulo $p^3$, where $p$ is an odd prime.
A generalized central trinomial coefficient $T_n(b,c)$ is the coefficient of $x^n$ in the expansion of $(x^2+bx+c)^n$ with $b,c\in\mathbb Z$. In this paper we investigate congruences and series for sums of terms related to central binomial coefficients and generalized central trinomial coefficients. The paper contains many conjectures on congruences related to representations of primes by certain binary quadratic forms, and 62 proposed new series for $1/π$ motivated by congruences and related dualities.
We establish two binomial coefficient--generalized harmonic sum identities using the partial fraction decomposition method. These identities are a key ingredient in the proofs of numerous supercongruences. In particular, in other works of the author, they are used to establish modulo $p^k$ ($k>1$) congruences between truncated generalized hypergeometric series, and a function which extends Greene's hypergeometric function over finite fields to the $p$-adic setting. A specialization of one of these congruences is used to prove an outstanding conjecture of Rodriguez-Villegas which relates a trun…
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 forms.
We prove the divisibility conjecture on sums of even powers of $q$-binomial coefficients, which was recently proposed by Guo, Schlosser and Zudilin. Our proof relies on two $q$-harmonic series congruences due to Shi and Pan.
For a positive integer $\ell$, let $b_{\ell}(n)$ denote the number of $\ell$-regular partitions of a nonnegative integer $n$. Motivated by some recent conjectures of Keith and Zanello, we establish infinite families of congruences modulo $2$ for $b_3(n)$ and $b_{21}(n)$. We prove a specific case of a conjecture of Keith and Zanello on self-similarities of $b_3(n)$ modulo $2$. We next prove that the series $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}b_9(2n+1)q^n$ is lacunary modulo arbitrary powers of $2$. We also prove that the series $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}b_9(4n)q^n$ is lacunary modulo $2$.
In this paper we give simple expressions, involving binomials coefficients, for the value of $c(n,k)$ modulo $p^{v_p(n)}$, when $v_p(n) > 0$. Here $c(n,k)$ denotes a Stirling number of the first kind, and $v_p(n)$ is the highest power of $p$ dividing $n$. As an application, we compute the Chern classes of permutation representations of cyclic groups.
Let $p>3$ be a prime and let $a$ be a positive integer. We show that if $p\equiv1\pmod 4$ or $a>1$ then $$\sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor\frac34p^a\rfloor}\frac{\binom{2k}k^2}{16^k}\equivł(\frac{-1}{p^a}\r)\pmod{p^3}$$ with $(-)$ the Jacobi symbol, which confirms a conjecture of Z.-W. Sun. We also establish the following new congruences: \begin{align*}\sum_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{\binom{2k}k\binom{3k}k}{27^k}\equiv&ł(\frac p3\r)\frac{2^p+1}3\pmod{p^2}, \\\sum_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{\binom{6k}{3k}\binom{3k}k}{(2k+1)432^k}\equiv&ł(\frac p3\r)\frac{3^p+1}4\pmod{p^2}, \\\sum_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{\binom{4k}{2k}\bin…
