Supercongruences for central trinomial coefficients

Abstract

For each $n=0,1,2,\ldots$, the central trinomial coefficient $T_n$ is the coefficient of $x^n$ in the expansion of $(x^2+x+1)^n$. Let $p>3$ be a prime, and let $n$ be any positive integer. In 2016, the second author conjectured that the quotient $(T_{pn}-T_n)/(pn)^2$ is always a $p$-adic integer. In this paper, we confirm this conjecture, and further prove that $$\frac{T_{pn}-T_n}{(pn)^2}\equiv\frac{T_{n-1}}6\left(\frac p3\right)B_{p-2}\left(\frac13\right)\pmod p,$$ where $(\frac p3)$ is the Legendre symbol and $B_{p-2}(x)$ is the Bernoulli polynomial of degree $p-2$.