Apéry-Like Sums and Colored Multiple Zeta Values

Abstract: In this article we shall survey some recent progress on the study of Ap\'ery-like sums which are multiple variable generalizations of the two sums Ap\'ery used in his famous proof of the irrationality of $\zeta(2)$ and $\zeta(3)$. We only allow the central binomial coefficients to appear in these infinite sums but they can appear either on the numerator or on the denominator. Special values of both types are closely related to the colored multiple zeta values and have played important roles in the calculations of the $\eps$-expansion of multiloop Feynman diagrams. We will summarize several different approaches to computing these sums and prove a few conjectural identities of Z.-W. Sun as corollaries along the way.