Let p be an odd prime and let a be a positive integer. In this paper we investigate the sum $\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{{\sum }_{k=0}^{p^a-1}(h{p}^a-1}{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k\left)\right(2k}{k)/m^k\left(modp²\right)}}$, where h and m are p-adic integers with m ≢ 0 (mod p). For example, we show that if h ≢ 0 (mod p) and $p^a>3$, then $\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{{\sum }_{k=0}^{p^a-1}(h{p}^a-1}{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k\left)\right(2k}{{k)(-h/2)}^k\equiv ((1-2h)/\left(p^a\right))(1+h({(4-2/h)}^{p-1}-1))\left(modp²\right)}}$, where (·/·) denotes the Jacobi symbol. Here is another remarkable congruence: If $p^a>3$ then $\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{{\sum }_{k=0}^{p^a-1}(p^a-1}{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k\left)\right(2k}{{k)(-1)}^k\equiv 3^{p-1}(p^a/3)\left(modp²\right)}}$.

Let ℤ be the set of integers, and let (m,n) be the greatest common divisor of integers m and n. Let p be a prime of the form 4k+1 and p = c²+d² with c,d ∈ ℤ, $d=2^{r}d₀$ and c ≡ d₀ ≡ 1 (mod 4). In the paper we determine ${(b+\surd (b²+4^{\alpha })/2)}^{(p-1)/4)}\left(modp\right)$ for p = x²+(b²+4α)y² (b,x,y ∈ ℤ, 2∤b), and ${(2a+\surd 4a²+1)}^{(p-1)/4}\left(modp\right)$ for p = x²+(4a²+1)y² (a,x,y∈ℤ) on the condition that (c,x+d) = 1 or (d₀,x+c) = 1. As applications we obtain the congruence for $U_{(p-1)/4}\left(modp\right)$ and the criterion for $p|U_{(p-1)/8}$ (if p ≡ 1 (mod 8)), where Uₙ is the Lucas sequence given by U₀ = 0, U₁ = 1 and...

In the paper we discuss the following type congruences: $$\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n{p}^k}{m{p}^k}\right)\equiv \left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{n}\right)(mod{p}^r),$$ where $p$ is a prime, $n$, $m$, $k$ and $r$ are various positive integers with $n\ge m\ge 1$, $k\ge 1$ and $r\ge 1$. Given positive integers $k$ and $r$, denote by $W(k,r)$ the set of all primes $p$ such that the above congruence holds for every pair of integers $n\ge m\ge 1$. Using Ljunggren’s and Jacobsthal’s type congruences, we establish several characterizations of sets $W(k,r)$ and inclusion relations between them for various values $k$ and $r$. In particular, we prove that $W(k+i,r)=W(k-1,r)$ for all $k\ge 2$, $i\ge 0$ and...

Let E be an interval in the unit interval [0,1). For each x ∈ [0,1) define dₙ(x) ∈ 0,1 by $dₙ\left(x\right):={\sum }_{i=1}^n{1}_E\left(2^{i-1}x\right)\left(mod2\right)$, where t is the fractional part of t. Then x is called a normal number mod 2 with respect to E if $N^{-1}{\sum }_{n=1}^{N}dₙ\left(x\right)$ converges to 1/2. It is shown that for any interval E ≠(1/6, 5/6) a.e. x is a normal number mod 2 with respect to E. For E = (1/6, 5/6) it is proved that $N^{-1}{\sum }_{n=1}^{N}dₙ\left(x\right)$ converges a.e. and the limit equals 1/3 or 2/3 depending on x.

For any odd prime p we obtain q-analogues of van Hamme’s and Rodriguez-Villegas’ supercongruences involving products of three binomial coefficients such as ${\sum }_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}{\left[\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2k}{k}\right]}_{q²}^3\left(q^{2k}\right)/\left((-q²;q²){²}_k(-q;q){²}_{2k}²\right)\equiv 0\left(mod\left[p\right]²\right)$ for p≡ 3 (mod 4), ${\sum }_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}{\left[\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2k}{k}\right]}_{q³}\left({(q;q³)}_k{(q²;q³)}_k{q}^{3k}\right)\left({(q⁶;q⁶)}_k²\right)\equiv 0\left(mod\left[p\right]²\right)$ for p≡ 2 (mod 3), where $\left[p\right]=1+q+\cdots +q^{p-1}$ and $(a;q)ₙ=(1-a)(1-aq)\cdots (1-a{q}^{n-1})$. We also prove q-analogues of the Sun brothers’ generalizations of the above supercongruences. Our proofs are elementary in nature and use the theory of basic hypergeometric series and combinatorial q-binomial identities including a new q-Clausen type summation formula. ...

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...

Let a,b and c be relatively prime positive integers such that a²+b² = c². We prove that if $b\equiv 0\left(mod{2}^r\right)$ and $b\equiv \pm 2^r\left(moda\right)$ for some non-negative integer r, then the Diophantine equation $a^x+b^y=c^z$ has only the positive solution (x,y,z) = (2,2,2). We also show that the same holds if c ≡ -1 (mod a).

We address three questions posed by K. Bibak (2020), and generalize some results of K. Bibak, D. N. Lehmer and K. G. Ramanathan on solutions of linear congruences ${\sum }_{i=1}^k{a}_i{x}_i\equiv b(modn)$. In particular, we obtain explicit expressions for the number of solutions, where $x_i$’s are squares modulo $n$. In addition, we obtain expressions for the number of solutions with order restrictions $x_1\ge \cdots \ge x_k$ or with strict order restrictions $x_1>\cdots >x_k$ in some special cases. In these results, the expressions for the number of solutions involve...

Let $\overline{pp}\left(n\right)$ denote the number of overpartition pairs of n. Bringmann and Lovejoy (2008) proved that for n ≥ 0, $\overline{pp}(3n+2)\equiv 0\left(mod3\right)$. They also proved that there are infinitely many Ramanujan-type congruences modulo every power of odd primes for $\overline{pp}\left(n\right)$. Recently, Chen and Lin (2012) established some Ramanujan-type identities and explicit congruences for $\overline{pp}\left(n\right)$. Furthermore, they also constructed infinite families of congruences for $\overline{pp}\left(n\right)$ modulo 3 and 5, and two congruence relations modulo 9. In this paper, we prove several...