arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Zhi-Wei Sun.
In 1992 Strauss, Shallit and Zagier proved that for any positive integer $a$ we have $$\sum_{k=0}^{3^a-1}\binom{2k}{k}=0 (mod 3^{2a})$$ and furthermore $$3^{-2a}}\sum_{k=0}^{3^a-1}\binom{2k}k=1 (mod 3).$$ Recently a $q$-analogue of the former congruence was conjectured by Guo and Zeng. In this paper we prove the Guo-Zeng conjecture and also give a $q$-analogue of the latter congruence.
Let $p$ be a prime and let $a$ be a positive integer. In this paper we investigate $\sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}\binom[(h+1)k,k+d]/m^k$ modulo a prime $p$, where $d$ and $m$ are integers with $-h<d<=p^a$ and $m\not=0 (mod p)$. We also study congruences involving higher-order Catalan numbers $C_k^{(h)}=\binom[(h+1)k,k]/(hk+1)$ and $\bar C_k^{(h)}=\binomal[(h+1)k,k]*h/(k+1)$. Our tools include linear recurrences and the theory of cubic residues. Here are some typical results in the paper. (i) If $p^a=1 (mod 6)$ then $$\sum_{k=1}^{p^a-1}\binom[3k,k]/6^k=2^{(p^a-1)/3}-1 (mod p).$$ Also, $$\sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}\binom[3k,k]/7^k=\cases-2&if p^a=\pm2 (mod 7), \\1&otherwise.$$ (ii) We have $$\sum_{k=1}^{p^a-1}\binom[4k,k]/5^k=\cases1 (mod p) if p\not=11 and p^a=1 (mod 5), \1/11 (mod p)&if p^a=2,3 (mod 5), \9/11 (mod p) if p^a=4 (mod 5). $$ Also, $$\sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}C_k^{(3)}/5^k=\cases1 (mod p) if p^a=1,3 (mod 5), \2 (mod p) if p^a=2 (mod 5), \\0 (mod p)& p^a=4 (mod 5).$$
Let A_1,...,A_n be finite subsets of a field F, and let f(x_1,...,x_n)=x_1^k+...+x_n^k+g(x_1,...,x_n)\in F[x_1,...,x_n] with deg g<k. We obtain a lower bound for the cardinality of {f(x_1,...,x_n): x_1\in A_1,...,x_n\in A_n, and x_i\not=x_j if i\not=j}. The result extends the Erdos-Heilbronn conjecture in a new way.
Let p be any odd prime. We mainly show that $$\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}binomial(3k,k)*2^k/k=0 (mod p)$$ and $$\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}2^{k-1}C_k^{(2)}=(-1)^{(p-1)/2}-1 (mod p),$$ where $C_k^{(2)}=binomial(3k,k)/(2k+1)$ is the $k$th Catalan number of order 2.
Zero-sum problems for abelian groups and covers of the integers by residue classes, are two different active topics initiated by P. Erdos more than 40 years ago and investigated by many researchers separately since then. In an earlier announcement [Electron. Res. Announc. Amer. Math. Soc. 9(2003), 51-60], the author claimed some surprising connections among these seemingly unrelated fascinating areas. In this paper we establish further connections between zero-sum problems for abelian p-groups and covers of the integers. For example, we extend the famous Erdos-Ginzburg-Ziv theorem in the following way: If {a_s(mod n_s)}_{s=1}^k covers each integer either exactly 2q-1 times or exactly 2q times where q is a prime power, then for any c_1,...,c_k in Z/qZ there exists a subset I of {1,...,k} such that sum_{s in I}1/n_s=q and sum_{s in I}c_s=0. Our main theorem in this paper unifies many results in the two realms and also implies an extension of the Alon-Friedland-Kalai result on regular subgraphs.
We study whether sufficiently large integers can be written in the form cp+T_x, where p is either zero or a prime congruent to r mod d, and T_x=x(x+1)/2 is a triangular number. We also investigate whether there are infinitely many positive integers not of the form (2^ap-r)/m+T_x with p a prime and x an integer. Besides two theorems, the paper also contains several conjectures together with related analysis and numerical data. One of our conjectures states that each natural number not equal to 216 can be written in the form p+T_x with x an integer and p a prime or zero; another conjecture asserts that any odd integer n>3 can be written in the form p+x(x+1) with p a prime and x a positive integer.
In this paper we confirm a conjecture of Sun which states that each positive integer is a sum of a square, an odd square and a triangular number. Given any positive integer m, we show that p=2m+1 is a prime congruent to 3 modulo 4 if and only if T_m=m(m+1)/2 cannot be expressed as a sum of two odd squares and a triangular number, i.e., p^2=x^2+8(y^2+z^2) for no odd integers x,y,z. We also show that a positive integer cannot be written as a sum of an odd square and two triangular numbers if and only if it is of the form 2T_m (m>0) with 2m+1 having no prime divisor congruent to 3 modulo 4.
In this paper we study mixed sums of primes and linear recurrences. We show that if m=2(mod 4) and m+1 is a prime then $(m^{2^n-1}-1)/(m-1)\not=m^n+p^a$ for any n=3,4,... and prime power p^a. We also prove that if a>1 is an integer, u_0=0, u_1=1 and u_{i+1}=au_i+u_{i-1} for i=1,2,3,..., then all the sums u_m+au_n (m,n=1,2,3,...) are distinct. One of our conjectures states that any integer n>4 can be written as the sum of an odd prime, an odd Fibonacci number and a positive Fibonacci number.
Let G be any additive abelian group with cyclic torsion subgroup, and let A, B and C be finite subsets of G with cardinality n>0. We show that there is a numbering {a_i}_{i=1}^n of the elements of A, a numbering {b_i}_{i=1}^n of the elements of B and a numbering {c_i}_{i=1}^n of the elements of C, such that all the sums a_i+b_i+c_i (i=1,...,n) are distinct. Consequently, each subcube of the Latin cube formed by the Cayley addition table of Z/NZ contains a Latin transversal. This additive theorem can be further extended via restricted sumsets in a field.
In this paper, we develop Terence Tao's harmonic analysis method and apply it to restricted sumsets. The well known Cauchy-Davenport theorem asserts that if $A$ and $B$ are nonempty subsets of $Z/pZ$ with $p$ a prime, then $|A+B|\ge min{p,|A|+|B|-1}$, where $A+B={a+b: a\in A, b\in B}$. In 2005, Terence Tao gave a harmonic analysis proof of the Cauchy-Davenport theorem, by applying a new form of the uncertainty principle on Fourier transform. We modify Tao's method so that it can be used to prove the following extension of the Erdos-Heilbronn conjecture: If $A,B,S$ are nonempty subsets of $Z/pZ$ with $p$ a prime, then $|{a+b: a\in A, b\in B, a-b not\in S}|\ge min {p,|A|+|B|-2|S|-1}$.
In this paper we construct a cover {a_s(mod n_s)}_{s=1}^k of Z with odd moduli such that there are distinct primes p_1,...,p_k dividing 2^{n_1}-1,...,2^{n_k}-1 respectively. Using this cover we show that for any positive integer m divisible by none of 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 there exists an infinite arithmetic progression of positive odd integers the m-th powers of whose terms are never of the form $2^n\pm p^a$ with p a prime and a,n in {0,1,2,...}. We also construct another cover of Z with odd moduli and use it to prove that $x^2-F_{3n}/2$ has at least two distinct prime factors whenever n is a nonnegative integer and x=a (mod M), where {F_i}_{i\ge 0} is the Fibonacci sequence, and a and M are suitable positive integers having 80 decimal digits.
In this paper we study recurrences concerning the combinatorial sum $[n,r]_m=\sum_{k\equiv r (mod m)}\binom {n}{k}$ and the alternate sum $\sum_{k\equiv r (mod m)}(-1)^{(k-r)/m}\binom{n}{k}$, where m>0, $n\ge 0$ and r are integers. For example, we show that if $n\ge m-1$ then $$\sum_{i=0}^{\lfloor(m-1)/2\rfloor}(-1)^i\binom{m-1-i}i [n-2i,r-i]_m=2^{n-m+1}.$$ We also apply such results to investigate Bernoulli and Euler polynomials. Our approach depends heavily on an identity established by the author [Integers 2(2002)].
Let p be any prime and a be a positive integer. For nonnegative integers l,n and an integer r, the normalized cyclotomic $ψ$-coefficient $${n,r}_{l,p^a}:=p^{-[(n-p^{a-1}-lp^a)/(p^{a-1}(p-1))]} \sum_{k=r(mod p^a)}(-1)^k{n \choose k}{{(k-r)/p^a} \choose l}$$ is known to be an integer. In this paper, we show that this coefficient behaves like binomial coefficients and satisfies some Lucas-type congruences. This implies that a congruence of Wan is often optimal, and two conjectures of Sun and Davis are true.
Let F be any field. Let p(F) be the characteristic of F if F is not of characteristic zero, and let p(F)=+\infty otherwise. Let A_1,...,A_n be finite nonempty subsets of F, and let $$f(x_1,...,x_n)=a_1x_1^k+...+a_nx_n^k+g(x_1,...,x_n)\in F[x_1,...,x_n]$$ with k in {1,2,3,...}, a_1,...,a_n in F\{0} and deg(g) k$ we propose a further conjecture which extends the Erdos-Heilbronn conjecture in a new direction.
Let G be any abelian group and {a_sG_s}_{s=1}^k be a finite system of cosets of subgroups G_1,...,G_k. We show that if {a_sG_s}_{s=1}^k covers all the elements of G at least m times with the coset a_tG_t irredundant then [G:G_t]\le 2^{k-m} and furthermore k\ge m+f([G:G_t]), where f(\prod_{i=1}^r p_i^{alpha_i})=\sum_{i=1}^r alpha_i(p_i-1) if p_1,...,p_r are distinct primes and alpha_1,...,alpha_r are nonnegative integers. This extends Mycielski's conjecture in a new way and implies a conjecture of Gao and Geroldinger. Our new method involves algebraic number theory and characters of abelian groups.
For an integer $x$ let $t_x$ denote the triangular number $x(x+1)/2$. Following a recent work of Z. W. Sun, we show that every natural number can be written in any of the following forms with $x,y,z\in\Z$: $$x^2+3y^2+t_z, x^2+3t_y+t_z, x^2+6t_y+t_z, 3x^2+2t_y+t_z, 4x^2+2t_y+t_z.$$ This confirms a conjecture of Sun.
For positive integers $a_1,a_2,...,a_m$, we determine the least positive integer $R(a_1,...,a_m)$ such that for every 2-coloring of the set $[1,n]={1,...,n}$ with $n\ge R(a_1,...,a_m)$ there exists a monochromatic solution to the equation $a_1x_1+...+a_mx_m=x_0$ with $x_0,...,x_m\in[1,n]$. The precise value of $R(a_1,...,a_m)$ is shown to be $av^2+v-a$, where $a=min{a_1,...,a_m}$ and $v=\sum_{i=1}^{m}a_i$. This confirms a conjecture of B. Hopkins and D. Schaal.
Let A={a_s(mod n_s)}_{s=1}^k and B={b_t(mod m_t)}_{t=1}^l be two systems of residue classes. If |{1\le s\le k: x=a_s (mod n_s)}| and |{1\le t\le l: x=b_t (mod m_t)}| are equal for all integers x, then A and B are said to be covering equivalent. In this paper we characterize the covering equivalence in a simple and new way. Using the characterization we partially confirm a conjecture of R. L. Graham and K. O'Bryant.