One variant of the q-Catalan polynomials is defined in terms of Gaussian polynomials by

$$ \begin{align*}\mathcal{C}_k(q)=\bigg[\begin{matrix}{2k}\\ {k}\end{matrix}\bigg]_q-q \bigg[\begin{matrix}{2k}\\ {k+1} \end{matrix}\bigg]_q.\end{align*} $$

Liu [‘On a congruence involving q-Catalan numbers’, C. R. Math. Acad. Sci. Paris 358 (2020), 211–215] studied congruences of the form $\sum _{k=0}^{n-1} q^k\mathcal {C}_k$ modulo the cyclotomic polynomial $\Phi _n(q)^2$, provided that $n\equiv \pm 1\pmod 3$. Apparently, the case $n\equiv 0\pmod 3$ has been missing from the literature. Our primary purpose is to fill this gap. In addition, we discuss a certain fascinating link to Dirichlet character sum identities.

Let $m,\,r\in {\mathbb {Z}}$ and $\omega \in {\mathbb {R}}$ satisfy $0\leqslant r\leqslant m$ and $\omega \geqslant 1$. Our main result is a generalized continued fraction for an expression involving the partial binomial sum $s_m(r) = \sum _{i=0}^r\binom{m}{i}$. We apply this to create new upper and lower bounds for $s_m(r)$ and thus for $g_{\omega,m}(r)=\omega ^{-r}s_m(r)$. We also bound an integer $r_0 \in \{0,\,1,\,\ldots,\,m\}$ such that $g_{\omega,m}(0)<\cdots < g_{\omega,m}(r_0-1)\leqslant g_{\omega,m}(r_0)$ and $g_{\omega,m}(r_0)>\cdots >g_{\omega,m}(m)$. For real $\omega \geqslant \sqrt 3$ we prove that $r_0\in \{\lfloor \frac {m+2}{\omega +1}\rfloor,\,\lfloor \frac {m+2}{\omega +1}\rfloor +1\}$, and also $r_0 =\lfloor \frac {m+2}{\omega +1}\rfloor$ for $\omega \in \{3,\,4,\,\ldots \}$ or $\omega =2$ and $3\nmid m$.

We prove the following conjecture of Z.-W. Sun [‘On congruences related to central binomial coefficients’, J. Number Theory 13(11) (2011), 2219–2238]. Let p be an odd prime. Then

$$ \begin{align*} \sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{\binom{2k}k}{k2^k}\equiv-\frac12H_{{(p-1)}/2}+\frac7{16}p^2B_{p-3}\pmod{p^3}, \end{align*} $$

where $H_n$ is the nth harmonic number and $B_n$ is the nth Bernoulli number. In addition, we evaluate $\sum _{k=0}^{p-1}(ak+b)\binom {2k}k/2^k$ modulo $p^3$ for any p-adic integers $a, b$.

In this paper, we mainly prove the following conjectures of Sun [16]: Let p > 3 be a prime. Then

\begin{align*}&A_{2p}\equiv A_2-\frac{1648}3p^3B_{p-3}\ ({\rm{mod}}\ p^4),\\&A_{2p-1}\equiv A_1+\frac{16p^3}3B_{p-3}\ ({\rm{mod}}\ p^4),\\&A_{3p}\equiv A_3-36738p^3B_{p-3}\ ({\rm{mod}}\ p^4),\end{align*}

where $A_n=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom{n}k^2\binom{n+k}{k}^2$ is the nth Apéry number, and Bn is the nth Bernoulli number.

In this paper, we mainly prove the following conjectures of Z.-W. Sun (J. Number Theory 133 (2013), 2914–2928): let $p>2$ be a prime. If $p=x^2+3y^2$ with $x,y\in \mathbb {Z}$ and $x\equiv 1\ ({\rm {mod}}\ 3)$, then

\[ x\equiv\frac14\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}(3k+4)\frac{f_k}{2^k}\equiv\frac12\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}(3k+2)\frac{f_k}{({-}4)^k}\ ({\rm{mod}}\ p^2), \]

$p\equiv 1\pmod 3$

\[ \sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{f_k}{2^k}\equiv\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}\frac{f_k}{({-}4)^k}\ ({\rm{mod}}\ p^3), \]

$f_n=\sum _{k=0}^n\binom {n}k^3$

$n$

The integrality of the numbers $A_{n,m}={(2n)!(2m)!}/{n!m!(n+m)!}$ was observed by Catalan as early as 1874 and Gessel named $A_{n,m}$ the super Catalan numbers. The positivity of the q-super Catalan numbers (q-analogue of the super Catalan numbers) was investigated by Warnaar and Zudilin [‘A q-rious positivity’, Aequationes Math. 81 (2011), 177–183]. We prove the divisibility of sums of q-super Catalan numbers, which establishes a q-analogue of Apagodu’s congruence involving super Catalan numbers.

We prove and generalise a conjecture in [MPP4] about the asymptotics of $\frac{1}{\sqrt{n!}} f^{\lambda/\mu}$ , where $f^{\lambda/\mu}$ is the number of standard Young tableaux of skew shape $\lambda/\mu$ which have stable limit shape under the $1/\sqrt{n}$ scaling. The proof is based on the variational principle on the partition function of certain weighted lozenge tilings.

In this paper, we show that the numbers of t-stack sortable n-permutations with k − 1 descents satisfy central and local limit theorems for t = 1, 2, n − 1 and n − 2. This result, in particular, gives an affirmative answer to Shapiro's question about the asymptotic normality of the Narayana numbers.

Qi and Chapman [‘Two closed forms for the Bernoulli polynomials’, J. Number Theory159 (2016), 89–100] gave a closed form expression for the Bernoulli polynomials as polynomials with coefficients involving Stirling numbers of the second kind. We extend the formula to the degenerate Bernoulli polynomials, replacing the Stirling numbers by degenerate Stirling numbers of the second kind.

Let $p>3$ be a prime and let $a$ be a rational $p$-adic integer with $a\not \equiv 0\;(\text{mod}\;p)$. We evaluate

$$\begin{eqnarray}\mathop{\sum }_{k=1}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{1}{k}\binom{a}{k}\binom{-1-a}{k}\quad \text{and}\quad \mathop{\sum }_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{1}{2k-1}\binom{a}{k}\binom{-1-a}{k}\end{eqnarray}$$

$p^{2}$

Given a sequence of polynomials $\{x_k(q)\}_{k \ges 0}$, define the transformation

$$y_n(q) = a^n\sum\limits_{i = 0}^n {\left( \matrix{n \cr i} \right)} b^{n-i}x_i(q)$$

$n\ges 0$

$[x_{i+j}(q)]_{i,j \ges 0}$

$\{y_n(q)\}_{n\ges 0}$

A classical result of Honsberger states that the number of incongruent triangles with integer sides and perimeter $n$ is the nearest integer to $n^{2}/48$ ($n$ even) or $(n+3)^{2}/48$ ($n$ odd). We solve the analogous problem for $m$-gons (for arbitrary but fixed $m\geq 3$) and for polygons (with arbitrary number of sides).

We prove some congruences on sums involving fourth powers of central q-binomial coefficients. As a conclusion, we confirm the following supercongruence observed by Long [Pacific J. Math. 249 (2011), 405–418]:

$$\sum\limits_{k = 0}^{((p^r-1)/(2))} {\displaystyle{{4k + 1} \over {{256}^k}}} \left( \matrix{2k \cr k} \right)^4\equiv p^r\quad \left( {\bmod p^{r + 3}} \right),$$

Some congruences on conjectures of van Hamme are established. These results give partial answers to some of Swisher's conjectures.

Recently, Sun posed a series of conjectures on the log-concavity of the sequence , where is a familiar combinatorial sequence of positive integers. Luca and Stănică, Hou et al. and Chen et al. proved some of Sun's conjectures. In this paper, we present a criterion on the log-concavity of the sequence . The criterion is based on the existence of a function f(n) that satisfies some inequalities involving terms related to the sequence . Furthermore, we present a heuristic approach to compute f(n). As applications, we prove that, for the Zagier numbers , the sequences are strictly log-concave, which confirms a conjecture of Sun. We also prove the log-concavity of the sequence of Cohen–Rhin numbers.

The characteristic polynomial ${{P}_{A}}({{x}_{0}},...,{{x}_{r}})$ of an $r$-tuple $A\,:=({{A}_{1}},...,{{A}_{r}})$ of $n\times n$-matrices is defined as

1

$${{P}_{A}}({{x}_{0}},...,{{x}_{r}}):=\det ({{x}_{0}}I+{{x}_{1}}{{A}_{1}}+\ldots +{{x}_{r}}{{A}_{r}}).$$

We show that if $r\,\,3$ and $A\,:=({{A}_{1}},...,{{A}_{r}})$ is an $r$-tuple of $n\times n$-matrices in general position, then up to conjugacy, there are only finitely many $r$-tuples $A'\,:=(A_{1}^{'},...,A_{r}^{'})$ such that ${{p}_{A}}={{p}_{A'}}$. Equivalently, the locus of determinantal hypersurfaces of degree $n$ in ${{\text{P}}^{r}}$ is irreducible of dimension $(r-1){{n}^{2}}+1$.

In this paper we give an extension of the results of the generalized waiting time problem given by El-Desouky and Hussen (1990). An urn contains m types of balls of unequal numbers, and balls are drawn with replacement until first duplication. In the case of finite memory of order k, let ni be the number of type i, i = 1, 2, …, m. The probability of success pi = ni/N, i = 1, 2, …, m, where ni is a positive integer and Let Ym,k be the number of drawings required until first duplication. We obtain some new expressions of the probability function, in terms of Stirling numbers, symmetric polynomials, and generalized harmonic numbers. Moreover, some special cases are investigated. Finally, some important new combinatorial identities are obtained.

In this paper we give an extension of a curious combinatorial identity due to B. Sury. Our proof is very simple and elementary. As an application, we obtain two congruences for Fermat quotients modulo p3. Moreover, we prove an extension of a result by H. Pan that generalizes Carlitz’s congruence.

Nous obtenons différentes identités de l'analyse combinatoire contenant des coefficients binomiaux de Gauss.

Σ q!/(h1! . . . hn!) with h1 + . . . + hn = q, the first a hj’s odd and the rest even, is expressed in terms of values of Krawtchouk polynomials.