Factors of alternating binomial sums (Q972860): Difference between revisions

\textit{N. J. Calkin} [Acta Arith. 86, No. 1, 17--26 (1998; Zbl 0917.11011)] showed that for all positive integers \(n\), \(m\), \[ \sum _{0\leq k \leq 2n} (-1)^k {{2n}\choose {k}}^m \] is divisible by \({2n}\choose{n}\). After generalizing Calkin's congruence, \textit{V. J. W. Guo, F. Jouhet} and \textit{J. Zeng} [Acta Arith. 127, No. 1, 17--31 (2007; Zbl 1116.05004)] proposed some conjectures on alternating binomial sums based on computer experiments. The first conjecture states that for any positive integers \(m\) and \(n\), the greatest common divisor of \[ \sum _{0\leq k \leq 2n} (-1)^k {{2n}\choose {k}}^r {: r=m, m+1,\dots} \] is equal to \({2n}\choose{n}\). The second conjecture states that for any positive integers \(r,s,t\) and \(n\), \[ \sum _{-n\leq k \leq n} (-1)^k {{6n}\choose {3n+k}}^r {{4n}\choose {2n+k}}^s {{2n}\choose {n+k}}^t \] is divisible by both \(2\)\({6n}\choose{n}\) and \(6\)\({6n}\choose{3n}\); furthermore, if \({(r,s,t)\neq (1,1,1)}\), then \[ \sum _{-n\leq k \leq n} (-1)^k {{8n}\choose {4n+k}}^r {{4n}\choose {2n+k}}^s {{2n}\choose {n+k}}^t \] is divisible by \(2\)\({8n}\choose{3n}\). Such conjectures are all confirmed within the exemplar theorem-proving framework established in this paper by using the \(q\)-analogue of Lucas congruence from \textit{B. E. Sagan} [Adv. Math. 95, No. 1, 127--143 (1992; Zbl 0761.11010)] and by applying a property of the \(d\)-th cyclotomic polynomial from \textit{V. J. W. Guo} and \textit{J. Zeng} [Eur. J. Comb. 27, No. 6, 884--895 (2006; Zbl 1111.05009)].