Wolstenholme and Vandiver primes (Q2673050): Difference between revisions

A Wolstenholme prime is a prime number \(p\) that divides the numerator of the Bernoulli number \(B_{p-3}\), while a Vandiver prime divides the Euler number \(E_{p-3}\). Hence, Wolstenholme primes are a special class of irregular primes, and so are the Vandiver primes, with respect to the Euler numbers. Despite computational efforts, only a few Wolstenholme and Vandiver primes are currently known. The authors here develop congruences mod \(p\) for both Bernoulli and Euler numbers, which are rather cumbersome, but highly advantageous from the computational point of view, and which enable them to effectively scan for both types of primes up to \(10^{11}\). (Previous records made in the year 2020 stood at \(10^{10}\) for Wolstenholme primes and \(5\cdot 10^9\) for Vandiver primes.) These congruences are given in Sections 2 and 4, respectively, for Bernoulli and Euler numbers, followed by the discussion for the actual implementations in Sections 3 and 5, respectively. Section 6 affirmatively answers a previously asked question on the existence of computational congruences for Bernoulli numbers, and Euler numbers as well, with fewer than \(\epsilon p\) terms, for any \(\epsilon >0\). The last Section 7 gives a useful insight into the derivations of such congruences that might help further work.