On sums of binomial coefficients modulo p^2

Zhi-Wei Sun

Published 2009-10-29, updated 2010-06-15Version 6

Let p be an odd prime and let a be a positive integer. In this paper we investigate the sum $\sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}\binom{hp^a-1}{k}\binom{2k}{k}/m^k$ mod p^2, where h,m are p-adic integers with m\not=0 (mod p). For example, we show that if h\not=0 (mod p) and p^a>3 then $$ sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}\binom{hp^a-1}{k}\binom{2k}{k}(-h/2)^k =(\frac{1-2h}{p^a})(1+h((4h-2)^{p-1}/h^{p-1}-1)) (mod p^2),$$ where (-) denotes the Jacobi symbol. Here is another remarkable congruence: If p>3 then $$\sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}\binom{p^a-1}{k}\binom{2k}{k}(-1)^k =3^{p-1}(\frac{p^a}3) (mod p^2).$$