Linear recurrence relations for binomial coefficients modulo a prime (Q2472411): Difference between revisions

The author shows that for a fixed positive integer \(k\), the sequence of binomial coefficients \({k\choose i}\) modulo a prime \(p\) does not satisfy any linear recurrence relation modulo \(p\) of positive degree \(h\) when \(h\leq \min\{k/2,p-k-1,(p-1)/3\}\). The above hypothesis can be weakened to \(h\leq \min\{k/2,(p-1)/2\}\) if one assume furthermore that the recurrence relation does not have \(-1\) as a root. For the proof, the author evaluates the Hankel determinants of order \(h\) whose entries are the corresponding binomial coefficients. The last section of the paper contains the following interesting application to counting points on Fermat curves over fields. If \(q\) is a power of \(p\), \(n\) is a divisor of \(q-1\) with \(n>(q-1)/(p-1)\) and \(a,b\in {\mathbb F}_p^*\), then the Fermat curve \(ax^n+by^n=z^n\) has at most \(n((n+p-1)-d(n-2))/2\) projective \({\mathbb F}_q\)-rational points, where \(d\) is the number of points with \(xyz=0\).