On Barnes' multiple zeta and gamma functions (Q5927532)

In this paper the author presents new frameworks for studying Barnes' multiple zeta and gamma functions. Barnes' multiple zeta function defined as \[ \zeta_{N}(s, w |a_{1}, \ldots, a_{N}) \quad = \sum_{m_{1}, \ldots, m_{N} = 0}^{\infty} (w+m_{1}a_{1}+ \cdots + m_{N}a_{N})^{-s}, \] \[ \operatorname {Re} w > 0, \;\operatorname {Re} s > N,\;a_{i}>0 \quad (i=1, \ldots, N) \] obeys the recurrence relation \[ \begin{aligned} \zeta_{M+1}&(s, w+a_{M+1} |a_{1},\ldots, a_{M+1}) \\ & -\zeta_{M+1}(s, w |a_{1}, \ldots, a_{M+1}) = -\zeta_{M}(s, w |a_{1}, \ldots, a_{M}) \end{aligned} \] (with \(\zeta_{0}(s, w) = w^{-s}\)). Barnes showed in 1904 that \(\zeta_{N}\) has a meromorphic continuation in \(s\) with simple poles only at \(s=1,\ldots, N\) and defined his multiple gamma function in terms of the \(s\)-derivative at \(s=0\), \[ \Psi_{N}(w |a_{1},\dots, a_{N}) = \partial_{s}\zeta_{N}(s, w |a_{1},\ldots, a_{N})|_{s=0} \] (\(\zeta_{1}\) and \(\Psi_{1}\) are, up to inessential factors, the Hurwitz zeta function and the logarithm of Euler's gamma function). The recurrences satisfied by \(\zeta_{N}\) and \(\Psi_{N}\) can be seen as analytic difference equations. The author gives conditions for the existence of `minimal solutions' to a certain type of analytic difference equation and obtains series representations for such solutions. Realizing \(\zeta_{N}\) and \(\Psi_{N}\) as minimal solutions to an analytic difference equation leads to new representations for these functions, one such example being \[ \begin{aligned} \zeta_{N}&(s, \sum_{j=1}^{N}a_{j}/2 +w) \\ \quad & = \int_{R^{N}}(\prod_{n=1}^{N} {\pi \cosh^{-2}(\pi x_{n}/a_{n})\over 2a_{n}^{2}(s-n)})(w-i\sum_{n=1}^{N}x_{n})^ {N-s} dx_{1}, \ldots, dx_{N} , \end{aligned} \] which immediately implies that \(\zeta_{N}\) has a meromorphic continuation in \(s\), with simple poles at \(s=1,\ldots, N\). The author also shows how Laplace transforms can be employed, independent of the difference equation approach, to handle the \(s\)-continuation and large-\(w\) asymptotics, for which Barnes used contour integrals which generalized the Hankel integral representation for the gamma function. Thus, from the new standpoints taken in this paper, in addition to recovering many results of Barnes some new representations are also obtained in ways simpler than before.