Inequalities for the harmonic numbers (Q627483)

Let \(H_n:=1+\frac 12+\dots+\frac 1n,n\geq 1\), be the harmonic numbers. The author proves the following. For all integers \(n\geq 2\), it holds that \[ \alpha\frac{\log(\log n +\gamma)}{n^2}\leq H_n^{\frac 1n}-H_{n+1}^{\frac{1}{n+1}} <\beta\frac{\log(\log n +\gamma)}{n^2} \] with the best possible constant factors \(\alpha=\frac{6\sqrt{6}-2\cdot\root3\of{396}}{3\log(\log 2+\gamma)} \) and \(\beta=1\), where \(\gamma\) is Euler's constant. For all integers \(n\geq 4\), it holds that \[ H_n^{\frac 1n}<\sqrt{H_{n-1}^{\frac{1}{n-1}}H_{n+1}^{\frac{1}{n+1}}}. \] For all integers \(m\geq 2\) and \(n\geq 2\), it holds that \[ 2<\frac{H_m^{\frac 1m}+H_n^{\frac 1n}}{H_{m+n}^{\frac{1}{m+n}}}<1+\frac 12 \sqrt{6}. \] Both bounds are best possible. If \(k,m,n\geq 3\), \(m<n\), then \[ H_{m+k}^{\frac{1}{m+k}} -H_m^{\frac 1m}<H_{n+k}^{\frac{1}{n+k}} -H_n^{\frac 1n}. \] For all integers \(n\geq 1\), it holds that \[ e(\sqrt{e}-1)\leq \exp(H_{n+1})-\exp(H_n)<e^\gamma. \] Both bounds are best possible. Let \(L_n\) be the Lucas numbers, \(\varphi=\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}\) and \(c=\frac{e^\gamma}{\log \varphi}\). For all integers \(n\geq 3\), it holds that \[ \left(c+\frac{\alpha}{n}\right)\log(L_n)\leq \exp(H_n)\leq \left(c+\frac{\beta}{n}\right)\log(L_n) \] with the best possible constants \(\alpha=4(\frac{\exp(\frac{25}{12})}{\log 7} -c)\) and \(\beta=3(\frac{\exp(\frac{11}{6})}{\log 7} -c)\). For \(x\in(0,\pi)\) and \(n\geq 1\) it holds that \[ 0<\sum_{k=1}^n\frac{\sin(kx)}{\exp(H_{k-1})} \] and that \[ 0<1+\sum_{k=1}^n\frac{\cos(kx)}{\exp(H_{k-1})}. \]