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.
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 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…
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.
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.
We prove that a certain family of sums of products of three binomials has alternating behavior modulo a prime $p$. To accomplish this we rewrite these sums as signed sums of products of three binomials, the better to handle $p$, and we give closed-form expressions for two related sums of signed products of three binomials.
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.
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.
We give a simplified presentation of some results about recurrences of certain sequences of binomial sums in terms of (generalized) Fibonacci and Lucas polynomials.
Due to some results by John P. D Angelo and Dusty Grundmeier about CR- mappings the main results of my 2001 paper about recurrences for some sequences of binomial sums can be simplified.
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.
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.
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.
By using the Rodriguez-Villegas-Mortenson supercongruences, we prove four supercongruences on sums involving binomial coefficients, which were originally conjectured by Sun. We also confirm a related conjecture of Guo on integer-valued polynomials.
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.
In this paper, we prove a divisibility result for the lacunary $q$-binomial sum $$ \sum_{k\equiv r\pmod{c}}(-1)^kq^{\binom{k}{2}}\qbinom{n}{k}{q}\qbinom{(k-r)/c}{l}{q^{c}}. $$
We propose higher-order generalizations of Jacobsthal's $p$-adic approximation for binomial coefficients. Our results imply explicit formulae for linear combinations of binomial coefficients $\binom{ip}{p}$ ($i=1,2,\dots$) that are divisible by arbitrarily large powers of prime $p$.
With help of $q$-congruence, we prove the divisibility of some binomial sums. For example, for any integers $ρ,n\geq 2$, $$\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(4k+1) \binom{2k}{k}^ρ\cdot (-4)^{ρ(n-1-k)} \equiv 0\pmod{2^{ρ-2}n\binom{2n}{n}}.$$
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…
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 recent years, Z.-W. Sun proposed several sophisticated conjectures on congruences for finite sums with terms involving combinatorial sequences such as central trinomial coefficients, Domb numbers and Franel numbers. These sums are double summations of hypergeometric terms. Using the telescoping method and certain mathematical software packages, we transform such a double summation into a single sum. With this new approach, we confirm several open conjectures of Sun.
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.
We prove that for any nonnegative integers $n$ and $r$ the binomial sum $$ \sum_{k=-n}^n\binom{2n}{n-k}k^{2r} $$ is divisible by $2^{2n-\min\{α(n),α(r)\}}$, where $α(n)$ denotes the number of 1's in the binary expansion of $n$. This confirms a recent conjecture of Guo and Zeng.
We estimate the number of solutions of certain diagonal congruences involving factorials. We use these results to bound exponential sums with products of two factorials $n!m!$ and also derive asymptotic formulas for the number of solutions of various congruences with factorials. For example, we prove that the products of two factorials $n!m!$ with $\max\{n,m\}<p^{1/2+ε}$ are uniformly distributed modulo $p$, and that any residue class modulo $p$ is representable in the form $m!n!+n_1! + ... +n_{49}!$ with $\max \{m,n, n_1, >..., n_{49}\} < p^{8775/8794+ ε}$.
In this paper we initiate the study of products and sums divisible by central binomial coefficients. We show that 2(2n+1)binom(2n,n)| binom(6n,3n)binom(3n,n) for every n=1,2,3,... Also, for any nonnegative integers $k$ and $n$ we have $$\binom {2k}k | \binom{4n+2k+2}{2n+k+1}\binom{2n+k+1}{2k}\binom{2n-k+1}n$$ and $$\binom{2k}k | (2n+1)\binom{2n}nC_{n+k}\binom{n+k+1}{2k},$$ where $C_m$ denotes the Catalan number $\binom{2m}m/(m+1)=\binom{2m}m-\binom{2m}{m+1}$. Applying this result we obtain two sums divisible by central binomial coefficients.
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.
In the present paper, we determine the sums $\sum_{j=1}^{p-1}\frac{H_j^{(s_1)}H_j^{(s_3)}}{j^{s_2}}$ and $\sum_{j=1}^{p-1}\frac{H_j^{(s_1)}H_j^{(s_3)}H_j^{(s_4)}}{j^{s_2}}$ modulo $p$ and modulo $p^2$ in certain cases. This is done by using multiple harmonic sums of length three and four, as well as, many other results. In addition, We recover three congruences conjectured by Z.-W Sun and solved later by the author himself and R. Meštrović.
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.
We study divisibility properties of certain sums and alternating sums involving binomial coefficients and powers of integers. For example, we prove that for all positive integers $n_1,..., n_m$, $n_{m+1}=n_1$, and any nonnegative integer $r$, there holds {align*} \sum_{k=0}^{n_1}ε^k (2k+1)^{2r+1}\prod_{i=1}^{m} {n_i+n_{i+1}+1\choose n_i-k} \equiv 0 \mod (n_1+n_m+1){n_1+n_m\choose n_1}, {align*} and conjecture that for any nonnegative integer $r$ and positive integer $s$ such that $r+s$ is odd, $$ \sum_{k=0}^{n}ε^k (2k+1)^{r}({2n\choose n-k}-{2n\choose n-k-1})^{s} \equiv 0 \mod{2n\choose n}, $$…
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.
In this paper we shall evaluate two alternating sums of binomial coefficients by a combinatorial argument. Moreover, by combining the same combinatorial idea with partition theoretic techniques, we provide $q$-analogues involving the $q$-binomial coefficients.
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 $p>\max(n+1,3)$.
In this paper, we consider two particular binomial sums \begin{align*} \sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(20k^2+8k+1){\binom{2k}{k}}^5 (-4096)^{n-k-1} \end{align*} and \begin{align*} \sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(120k^2+34k+3){\binom{2k}{k}}^4\binom{4k}{2k} 65536^{n-k-1}, \end{align*} which are inspired by two series for $\frac{1}{π^2}$ obtained by Guillera. We consider their divisibility properties and prove that they are divisible by $2n^2 \binom{2n}{n}^2$ for all integer $n\geq 2$. These divisibility properties are stronger than those divisibility results found by He, who proved the above two sums are divisible by $2n \b…
