We exploit the properties of Legendre polynomials defined by the contour integral ${𝐏}_n\left(z\right)={\left(2\pi \mathrm{i}\right)}^{-1}\oint {(1-2tz+t^2)}^{-1/2}{t}^{-n-1}\mathrm{d}t,$ where the contour encloses the origin and is traversed in the counterclockwise direction, to obtain congruences of certain sums of central binomial coefficients. More explicitly, by comparing various expressions of the values of Legendre polynomials, it can be proved that for any positive integer $r$, a prime $p⩾5$ and $n=r{p}^2-1$, we have ${\sum }_{k=0}^{\lfloor n/2\rfloor }\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2k}{k}\right)\equiv 0,1\text{or}-1(mod{p}^2)$, depending on the value of $r(mod6)$.

We systematically investigate the expressions and congruences for both a one-parameter family $\left\{G_n\left(x\right)\right\}$ as well as a two-parameter family $\left\{G_n(r,m)\right\}$ of sequences.

Let ℤ be the set of integers, and let (m,n) be the greatest common divisor of the integers m and n. Let p ≡ 1 (mod 4) be a prime, q ∈ ℤ, 2 ∤ q and p=c²+d²=x²+qy² with c,d,x,y ∈ ℤ and c ≡ 1 (mod 4). Suppose that (c,x+d)=1 or (d,x+c) is a power of 2. In this paper, by using the quartic reciprocity law, we determine $q^{[p/8]}\left(modp\right)$ in terms of c,d,x and y, where [·] is the greatest integer function. Hence we partially solve some conjectures posed in our previous two papers.

We employ recent results on Jacobi forms to investigate congruences and filtrations of Siegel modular forms of degree $2$. In particular, we determine when an analog of Atkin’s $U\left(p\right)$-operator applied to a Siegel modular form of degree $2$ is nonzero modulo a prime $p$. Furthermore, we discuss explicit examples to illustrate our results.

A prime $p$ is said to be a Wolstenholme prime if it satisfies the congruence $\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2p-1}{p-1}\right)\equiv 1(mod{p}^4)$. For such a prime $p$, we establish an expression for $\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2p-1}{p-1}\right)(mod{p}^8)$ given in terms of the sums $R_i:={\sum }_{k=1}^{p-1}1/k^i$ ($i=1,2,3,4,5,6)$. Further, the expression in this congruence is reduced in terms of the sums $R_i$ ($i=1,3,4,5$). Using this congruence, we prove that for any Wolstenholme prime $p$ we have $$\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2p-1}{p-1}\right)\equiv 1-2p\sum _{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k}-2p^2\sum _{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k^2}(mod{p}^7).$$ Moreover, using a recent result of the author, we prove that a prime $p$ satisfying the above congruence must necessarily be a Wolstenholme prime. Furthermore, applying a technique...