New congruences for central binomial coefficients (Q972862)

Let \(p\) be a prime and \(0\leq d\leq p^a\). Suppose that \(m\) is an integer and \(p\nmid m\). The authors prove that \[ \sum_{k=0}^{p^a-1}\frac{1}{m^k}\binom{2k}{k+d}\equiv u_{p^a-2}(m-2)\pmod{p},\tag{1} \] and \[ d\sum_{k=1}^{p^a-1}\frac{1}{k m^{k-1}}\binom{2k}{k+d}\equiv 2(-1)^d+v_{p^a-d}(m-2)\pmod{p}\tag{2} \] provided \(d>0\), where the polynomials \(u_n(x)\) and \(v_n(x)\) are defined by \[ u_0(x)=0,\;u_1(x)=1,\;u_{n+1}(x)=xu_{n}(x)-u_{n-1}(x), \] \[ v_0(x)=2,\;v_1(x)=x,\;v_{n+1}(x)=xv_{n}(x)-v_{n-1}(x). \] The author also prove a complement to (2) when \(d=0\): \[ \frac12\sum_{k=1}^{p^a-1}\frac{(-1)^k}{k m^{k-1}}\binom{2k}{k}\equiv \frac{m^p-V_p(m)}{p}\pmod{p},\tag{3} \] where \[ V_0(x)=2,\;V_1(x)=x,\;V_{n+1}(x)=x(V_{n}(x)+V_{n-1}(x)). \] The key of the proofs is a curious identity: \[ \sum_{k=0}^{n-1}\binom{2k}{k+d}x^{n-1-k}+x^nu_d(x-2)\delta_{d>0}=\sum_{k=0}^{n+d-1}\binom{2n}ku_{n+d-k}(x-2), \] where \(\delta_{d>0}=1\) or \(0\) according to whether \(d>0\).