Gessel-Lucas congruences for sporadic sequences

Abstract

For each of the $15$ known sporadic Apéry-like sequences, we prove congruences modulo $p^2$ that are natural extensions of the Lucas congruences modulo $p$. This extends a result of Gessel for the numbers used by Apéry in his proof of the irrationality of $\zeta (3)$. Moreover, we show that each of these sequences satisfies two-term supercongruences modulo $p^{2r}$. Using special constant term representations recently discovered by Gorodetsky, we prove these supercongruences in the two cases that remained previously open.

17 pages