Some congruences involving central q-binomial coefficients

Motivated by recent works of Sun and Tauraso, we prove some variations on the Green-Krammer identity involving central q-binomial coefficients, such as $$\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(-1)^kq^{-{k+1\choose 2}}{2k\brack k}_q \equiv (\frac{n}{5}) q^{-\lfloor n^4/5\rfloor} \pmod{\Phi_n(q)},$$ where $\big(\frac{n}{p}\big)$ is the Legendre symbol and $\Phi_n(q)$ 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 $a,m\geq 1$, the first one being a partial q-analogue of the Strauss-Shallit-Zagier congruence modulo powers of 3. Several related conjectures are proposed.Comment: 16 pages, detailed proofs of Theorems 4.1 and 4.3 are added, to appear in Adv. Appl. Mat

On congruences related to central binomial coefficients

It is known that $\sum_{k=0}^\infty\binom{2k}{k}/((2k+1)4^k)=\pi/2$ and $\sum_{k=0}^\infty\binom{2k}{k}/((2k+1)16^k)=\pi/3$. 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=x^2+7y^2 with x,y integers, and $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\binom{2k}{k}^3=0 (mod p^2)$$ if (p/7)=-1, i.e., p=3,5,6 (mod 7)

In search of Robbins stability

We speculate on whether a certain p-adic stability phenomenon, observed by David Robbins empirically for Dodgson condensation, appears in other nonlinear recurrence relations that "unexpectedly" produce integer or nearly-integer sequences. We exhibit an example (number friezes) where this phenomenon provably occurs.Comment: 10 pages; to appear in the David Robbins memorial issue of Advances in Applied Mathematic