Congruences for sums involving $\binom{rk}{k}$

Abstract

We primarily investigate congruences modulo $p$ for finite sums of the form $\sum_k\binom{rk}{k}x^k/k$ over the ranges $0<k<p$ and $0<k<p/r$, where $p$ is a prime larger than the positive integer $r$. Here $x$ is an indeterminate, thus allowing specialization to numerical congruences where $x$ takes certain algebraic numbers as values. We employ two different approaches that have complementary strengths. In particular, we obtain congruences modulo $p^2$ for the sum $\sum_{0<k<p}\binom{rk}{k}x^k$, expressed in terms of finite polylogarithms of certain quantities related to $x$.