Congruences for the Bell polynomials and Bell numbers (Q1420746)

For nonnegative integers \(n\geq k\geq 0\) the Stirling number of the second kind \(S(n,k)\) counts the number of partitions of a set with \(n\) elements into \(k\) disjoint nonempty subsets, and the Bell number \(B(n)=\sum_{k=0}^n S(n,k)\) counts the total number of partitions of a set with \(n\) elements. There are already many congruences in the literature for Stirling and Bell numbers. The present paper adds a few more. Let \(B_n(X)=\sum_{k=0}^n S(n,k)X^k\) be the \(n\)th Bell polynomial. The main result of the paper is the congruence \[ B_{m+np^{\mu}}(X)\equiv \sum_{k=0}^n {n\choose k}(X^p+X^{p^2}+\dots+ X^{p^{\mu}})^{n-k}B_{m+k}(X)\pmod {np{\mathbb Z}_p[X]}, \] where \({\mathbb Z}_p\) is the ring of \(p\)-adic integers, \(m,~n\geq 0\) and \(\mu\geq 1\) are three integers and \(p\) is an odd prime. The same congruence above is valid when \(p=2\) only modulo \(n{\mathbb Z}_2[X]\). Specializing \(X:=1\) in the above congruence one obtains a generalization of some known congruences for Bell numbers due to Touchard, Radoux and Comtet-Zuber. A few corollaries of this Theorem are given. Finally, by identifying coefficients in the above congruence and specializing \(n\) and \(\nu\) in appropriate ways, the author obtains a few congruences involving Stirling numbers, such as \[ S(m+p^a,k)\equiv S(m+1,k)+\sum_{i=1}^{a}S(m,k-p^i)\pmod p, \] where \(a\geq 1\) and \(p\) is an odd prime. The proofs involve elementary techniques based on umbral calculus.