Congruences involving $g_n(x)=\sum \limits _{k=0}^n\left( {\begin{array}{c}n\\ k\end{array}}\right) ^2\left( {\begin{array}{c}2k\\ k\end{array}}\right) x^k$

Abstract

Define $g_n(x)=\sum _{k=0}^n\left( {\begin{array}{c}n\\ k\end{array}}\right) ^2\left( {\begin{array}{c}2k\\ k\end{array}}\right) x^k$ for $n=0,1,2,\ldots$. Those numbers $g_n=g_n(1)$ are closely related to Apéry numbers and Franel numbers. In this paper we establish some fundamental congruences involving $g_n(x)$. For example, for any prime $p>5$ we have

$$\begin{aligned} \sum _{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{g_k(-1)}{k}\equiv 0\pmod {p^2}\quad \text {and}\quad \sum _{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{g_k(-1)}{k^2}\equiv 0\pmod p. \end{aligned}$$

This is similar to Wolstenholme’s classical congruences

$$\begin{aligned} \sum _{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k}\equiv 0\pmod {p^2}\quad \text {and}\quad \sum _{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k^2}\equiv 0\pmod p \end{aligned}$$

for any prime $p>3$.