Supercongruences involving dual sequences

In this paper we study some sophisticated supercongruences involving dual sequences. For $n=0,1,2,\ldots$ define $$d_n(x)=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom nk\binom xk2^k$$ and $$s_n(x)=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom nk\binom xk\binom{x+k}k=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom nk(-1)^k\binom xk\binom{-1-x}k.$$ For any odd prime $p$ and $p$-adic integer $x$, we determine $\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}(\pm1)^kd_k(x)^2$ and $\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}(2k+1)d_k(x)^2$ modulo $p^2$; for example, we establish the new $p$-adic congruence $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}(-1)^kd_k(x)^2\equiv(-1)^{\langle x\rangle_p}\pmod{p^2},$$ where $\langle x\rangle_p$ denotes the least nonnegative integer $r$ with $x\equiv r\pmod p$. For any prime $p>3$ and $p$-adic integer $x$, we determine $\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}s_k(x)^2$ modulo $p^2$ (or $p^3$ if $x\in\{0,\ldots,p-1\}$), and show that $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}(2k+1)s_k(x)^2\equiv0\pmod{p^2}.$$ We also pose several related conjectures.Comment: 35 pages, final published versio

A homotopy theory of additive categories with suspensions

We develop a homotopy theory for additive categories endowed with endofunctors, analogous to the concept of a model structure. We use it to construct the homotopy theory of a Hovey triple (which consists of two compatible complete cotorsion pairs) in an arbitrary exact category. We show that the homotopy category of an exact model structure (in the sense of Hovey) in a weakly idempotent complete exact category is equivalent to the subfactor category of cofibrant-fibrant objects as pre-triangulated categories.Comment: any comments are welcome. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1510.0225

New observations on primitive roots modulo primes

We make many new observations on primitive roots modulo primes. For an odd prime $p$ and an integer $c$, we establish a theorem concerning $\sum_g(\frac{g+c}p)$, where $g$ runs over all the primitive roots modulo $p$ among $1,\ldots,p-1$, and $(\frac{\cdot}p)$ denotes the Legendre symbol. On the basis of our numerical computations, we formulate 35 conjectures involving primitive roots modulo primes. For example, we conjecture that for any prime $p$ there is a primitive root $g<p$ modulo $p$ with $g-1$ a square, and that for any prime $p>3$ there is a prime $q<p$ with the Bernoulli number $B_{q-1}$ a primitive root modulo $p$. We also make related observations on quadratic nonresidues modulo primes and primitive prime divisors of some combinatorial sequences. For example, based on heuristic arguments we conjecture that for any prime $p>3$ there exists a Fibonacci number $F_k<p/2$ which is a quadratic nonresidue modulo $p$; this implies that there is a deterministic polynomial time algorithm to find square roots of quadratic residues modulo a prime $p>3$.Comment: 23 page

A result similar to Lagrange's theorem

Generalized octagonal numbers are those $p_8(x)=x(3x-2)$ with $x\in\mathbb Z$. In this paper we mainly show that every positive integer can be written as the sum of four generalized octagonal numbers one of which is odd. This result is similar to Lagrange's theorem on sums of four squares. Moreover, for $35$ triples $(b,c,d)$ with $1\le b\le c\le d$ (including $(2,3,4)$ and $(2,4,8)$), we prove that any nonnegative integer can be exprssed as $p_8(w)+bp_8(x)+cp_8(y)+dp_8(z)$ with $w,x,y,z\in\mathbb Z$. We also pose several conjectures for further research.Comment: 21 pages, final published versio

Quadratic residues and related permutations and identities

Let $p$ be an odd prime. In this paper we investigate quadratic residues modulo $p$ and related permutations, congruences and identities. If $a_1<\ldots<a_{(p-1)/2}$ are all the quadratic residues modulo $p$ among $1,\ldots,p-1$, then the list $\{1^2\}_p,\ldots,\{((p-1)/2)^2\}_p$ (with $\{k\}_p$ the least nonnegative residue of $k$ modulo $p$) is a permutation of $a_1,\ldots,a_{(p-1)/2}$, and we show that the sign of this permutation is $1$ or $(-1)^{(h(-p)+1)/2}$ according as $p\equiv3\pmod 8$ or $p\equiv7\pmod 8$, where $h(-p)$ is the class number of the imaginary quadratic field $\mathbb Q(\sqrt{-p})$. To achieve this, we evaluate the product $\prod_{1\le j<k\le(p-1)/2}(\cot\pi j^2/p-\cot\pi k^2/p)$ via Dirichlet's class number formula and Galois theory. We also obtain some new identities for the sine and cosine functions; for example, we determine the exact value of $$\prod_{1\le j<k\le p-1}\cos\pi\frac{aj^2+bjk+ck^2}p$$ for any $a,b,c\in\mathbb Z$ with $ac(a+b+c)\not\equiv0\pmod p$.Comment: 36 pages, final published versio

An additive theorem and restricted sumsets

Let G be any additive abelian group with cyclic torsion subgroup, and let A, B and C be finite subsets of G with cardinality n>0. We show that there is a numbering {a_i}_{i=1}^n of the elements of A, a numbering {b_i}_{i=1}^n of the elements of B and a numbering {c_i}_{i=1}^n of the elements of C, such that all the sums a_i+b_i+c_i (i=1,...,n) are distinct. Consequently, each subcube of the Latin cube formed by the Cayley addition table of Z/NZ contains a Latin transversal. This additive theorem can be further extended via restricted sumsets in a field

Some new inequalities for primes

For n=1,2,3,... let p_n be the n-th prime. We mainly show that p_n>n+sum_{k=1}^n p_k/k for all n>124, and sum_{k=1}^n kp_k<n^2p_n/3 for all n>30.Comment: 6 pages. Make Theorem 1.2 genera

On Motzkin numbers and central trinomial coefficients

The Motzkin numbers $M_n=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom n{2k}\binom{2k}k/(k+1)$ $(n=0,1,2,\ldots)$ and the central trinomial coefficients $T_n$ ($n=0,1,2,\ldots)$ given by the constant term of $(1+x+x^{-1})^n$ have many combinatorial interpretations. In this paper we establish the following surprising arithmetic properties of them with $n$ any positive integer: $$\frac2n\sum_{k=1}^n(2k+1)M_k^2\in\mathbb Z,$$ $$\frac{n^2(n^2-1)}6\,\bigg|\,\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}k(k+1)(8k+9)T_kT_{k+1},$$ and also $$\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(k+1)(k+2)(2k+3)M_k^23^{n-1-k}=n(n+1)(n+2)M_nM_{n-1}.$$Comment: 21 page

Products and sums divisible by central binomial coefficients

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.Comment: 15 pages. Submitted version. Add some conjectures and references

The least modulus for which consecutive polynomial values are distinct

Let $d\ge4$ and $c\in(-d,d)$ be relatively prime integers. We show that for any sufficiently large integer $n$ (in particular $n>24310$ suffices for $4\le d\le 36$), the smallest prime $p\equiv c\pmod d$ with $p\ge(2dn-c)/(d-1)$ is the least positive integer $m$ with $2r(d)k(dk-c)\ (k=1,\ldots,n)$ pairwise distinct modulo $m$, where $r(d)$ is the radical of $d$. We also conjecture that for any integer $n>4$ the least positive integer $m$ such that $|\{k(k-1)/2\ \mbox{mod}\ m:\ k=1,\ldots,n\}|= |\{k(k-1)/2\ \mbox{mod}\ m+2:\ k=1,\ldots,n\}|=n$is the least prime$p\ge 2n-1$with$p+2$ also prime.Comment: Final published versio