On some supercongruence conjectures for truncated hypergeometric series (Q2241679)

The authors determine many truncated hypergeometric series connected to the values of \(p\)-adic gamma function \(\Gamma_p (x)\), some of which confirming the Ramanujan-type supercongruences conjectured by \textit{L. van Hamme} [Lect. Notes Pure Appl. Math. 192, 223--236 (1997; Zbl 0895.11051)] and investigated by \textit{H. Swisher} [Res. Math. Sci. 2, Paper No. 18, 21 p. (2015; Zbl 1337.33005)]. \newline Among the noteworthy results, the supercongruence hypothesized by \textit{J.-C. Liu} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 471, No. 1--2, 613--622 (2019; Zbl 1423.11015)] \[\sum_{k=0}^{\frac{p-1}{2}} (4k+1) (-1)^k \frac{\bigl (\frac{1}{2}\big )_{k}^{5}}{k!^5} \equiv -\frac{p^3}{16} \Gamma_p \Bigl (\frac{1}{4}\Big )^4 \pmod{p^5}\]is here established for any prime \(p \geq 5\) such that \(p \equiv 3 \pmod{4}\), whereas, on the basis of ``numerical evidence'', \[\sum_{k=0}^{\frac{p^r-1}{2}} (4k+1) (-1)^k \frac{\bigl (\frac{1}{2}\big )_{k}^{5}}{k!^5} \equiv p^{2r} \pmod{p^{r+4}}\] is proposed as conjecture for positive even integers \(r\) and primes \(p>5\) with \(p \equiv 3 \pmod{4}\). \newline This paper also provides an alternative to the proof of \textit{V. J. W. Guo} and \textit{S.-D. Wang} [Proc. R. Soc. Edinb., Sect. A, Math. 150, No. 3, 1127--1138 (2020; Zbl 1468.11067)] for the van Hamme type supercongruence \[\sum_{k=0}^{\frac{p^r-1}{2}} (4k+1) \frac{\bigl (\frac{1}{2}\big )^4}{k!^4} \equiv p^{r} \pmod{p^{r+3}},\] valid for any prime \(p>3\) and any integer \(r>1\). \newline Beyond a proving method and a \(p\)-adic approximation to \(\Gamma_p\)-quotients both due to \textit{L. Long} and \textit{R. Ramakrishna} [Adv. Math. 290, 773--808 (2016; Zbl 1336.33018)], the authors employ a congruence about rising factorials they found in a previous work [Integral Transforms Spec. Funct. 30, No. 9, 683--692 (2019; Zbl 1439.11012)].