On the \(p\)-adic properties of Stirling numbers of the first kind (Q2003773)

Let \(s(n, k)\) denote the Stirling number of the first kind, and \(v_p (n)\) denotes the \(p\)-adic valuation of \(n\). The purpose of this article is to find an exact expression or a lower bound on \(v_p(s(ap, k))\) with \(a \) and \( k \) being integers such that \(1 \le a \le p-1 \) and \(1 \le k \le ap \) with \(p\ge 5\). This gives a partial support to a conjecture of \textit{P. Leonetti} and \textit{C. Sanna} [Acta Math. Hung. 151, No. 1, 217--231 (2017; Zbl 1399.11063)]. In this paper another definition for Stirling numbers of the first kind in terms of elementary symmetric functions was given. Partial proofs of a conjecture by \textit{T. Lengyel} [J. Number Theory 148, 73--94 (2015; Zbl 1309.11017)] as well as other conjectures are given. The proofs use Bernoulli numbers, Newton sum, Newton-Girard formula and generalized harmonic numbers.