Cyclotomic Congruences and Lucas Sequences

Abstract

In this paper, we extend the $p$-adic valuations originally obtained by Carmichael for the sequences obtained by applying Möbius inversion to Lucas sequences to $p$-adic congruences, from which we immediately derive corresponding congruences for Lucas sequences. As a corollary, we also establish some constraints on the entry point behavior of primes in Lucas sequences, on the basis of which we conjecture the presence of a strong Chebyshev-like bias in real regular Lucas sequences.

21 pages, 1 table, 1 figure; replacement corrects a small but confusing typographical error in the definition of M^V