Supercongruences for the Almkvist–Zudilin numbers

Abstract

Given a prime number $p$, the study of divisibility properties of a sequence $c(n)$ has two contending approaches: $p$-adic valuations and superconcongruences. The former searches for the highest power of $p$ dividing $c(n)$, for each $n$; while the latter (essentially) focuses on the maximal powers $r$ and $t$ such that $c(p^rn)$ is congruent to $c(p^{r-1}n)$ modulo $p^t$. This is called supercongruence. In this paper, we prove a conjecture on supercongruences for sequences that have come to be known as the Almkvist-Zudilin numbers. Some other (naturally) related family of sequences will be considered in a similar vain.