Wolstenholme's higher-power congruences for Gaussian integers

Let i2=1i^2=-1. For an integer k1k\geq 1 and a prime p>17p>17, define

Sp(k)=1n,mp1(p,n2+m2)=11(mi+n)k.S_p^{(k)}=\sum_{\substack{1\leq n,m\leq p-1\\(p,n^2+m^2)=1}}\frac{1}{(mi+n)^k}.

Define m(k)m(k) by

m(k)={4if k1(mod4),3if k2(mod4),2if k3(mod4),1if k0(mod4).m(k)=\begin{cases}4 & \text{if } k\equiv 1\pmod 4,\\3 & \text{if } k\equiv 2\pmod 4,\\2 & \text{if } k\equiv 3\pmod 4,\\1 & \text{if } k\equiv 0\pmod 4.\end{cases}

Wolstenholme's higher-power congruences. For every such kk and pp,

Sp(k)0(modpm(k)).S_p^{(k)}\equiv 0\pmod {p^{m(k)}}.

Equivalently, the source writes m(k)=4(k1)(mod4)m(k)=4-(k-1)\pmod 4. Computations establish the corresponding congruences for kk through 1212, but a general proof is not known; the difficulty is obtaining a general formula for the coefficient of the lowest power of pp in the relevant numerator.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Nikita Kalinin, “Wolstenholme's theorem over Gaussian integers”, arXiv:2504.07978 (2025).

Additional references

2 papers in this index state this conjecture (2012–2025). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:1211.4570.

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