Towards characterising polynomiality of $\frac{1-q^b}{1-q^a}{n\brack m}$ and applications

Abstract

In this note we shall give conditions which guarantee that $\frac{1-q^b}{1-q^a}{n\brack m}\in\mathbb{Z}[q]$ holds. We shall provide a full characterisation for $\frac{1-q^b}{1-q^a}{ka\brack m}\in\mathbb{Z}[q]$. This unifies a variety of results already known in literature. We shall prove new divisibility properties for the binomial coefficients and a new divisibility result for a certain finite sum involving the roots of the unity.