Hypergeometric evaluation identities and supercongruences (Q627404)

The author establishes the truth of the following (super)congruences for primes \(p>3\): \[ \begin{aligned} \sum_{k=0}^{(p^r-1)/2}\frac{4k+1}{2^{8k}}{\binom{2k}k}^4 &\equiv p^r \pmod{p^{r+3}}, \\ \sum_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{4k+1}{2^{12k}}{\binom{2k}k}^6 &\equiv p\cdot a_p \pmod{p^4}, \\ \sum_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{6k+1}{2^{8k}}{\binom{2k}k}^3 &\equiv(-1)^{(p-1)/2}p \pmod{p^4}, \\ \sum_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{6k+1}{(-1)^k2^{9k}}{\binom{2k}k}^3 &\equiv(-1)^{(p^2-1)/8+(p-1)/2}p \pmod{p^2}, \end{aligned} \] where \(r\) is an arbitrary positive integer and \(a_p\) denotes the \(p\)-th coefficient of the weight 4 cusp form \(q\prod_{n=1}^\infty(1-q^{2n})^4(1-q^{4n})^4\). The proofs make use of `strange' evaluations of hypergeometric series [\textit{I.~Gessel} and \textit{D.~Stanton}, SIAM J.\ Math.\ Anal. 13, 295--308 (1982; Zbl 0486.33003)].