Criteria for irrationality of Euler’s constant

DOI10.1090/S0002-9939-03-07081-3zbMATH Open1113.11040arXivmath/0209070OpenAlexW1505555202MaRDI QIDQ4417232FDOQ4417232

Jonathan Sondow

Publication date: 28 July 2003

Published in: Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: By modifying Beukers' proof of Apery's theorem that zeta(3) is irrational, we derive criteria for irrationality of Euler's constant, gamma. For n > 0, we define a double integral I(n) and a positive integer S(n), and prove that if d(n) = LCM(1,...,n), then the fractional part of logS(n) is given by {logS(n)} = d(2n)I(n), for all n sufficiently large, if and only if gamma is a rational number. A corollary is that if {logS(n)} > 1/2^n infinitely often, then gamma is irrational. Indeed, if the inequality holds for a given n (we present numerical evidence for 0 < n < 2500 and n = 10000) and gamma is rational, then its denominator does not divide the product d(2n)Binomial(2n,n). We prove a new combinatorial identity in order to show that a certain linear form in logarithms is in fact logS(n). A by-product is a rapidly converging asymptotic formula for gamma, used by P. Sebah to compute it correct to 18063 decimals.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0209070

zbMATH Keywords

asymptotic formulacombinatorial identityfractional partLaplace's methodEuler's constantharmonic numberlinear form in logarithmsirrationalityPrime Number TheoremApéry's theoremBeukers' integrals

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Combinatorial identities, bijective combinatorics (05A19) Irrationality; linear independence over a field (11J72)

Cited In (25)

• Four parametric linear Euler sums
• Criteria for irrationality of generalized Euler's constant
• Integrals over polytopes, multiple zeta values and polylogarithms, and Euler's constant
• The generalized-Euler-constant function \(\gamma (z)\) and a generalization of Somos's quadratic recurrence constant
• Double integrals and infinite products for some classical constants via analytic continuations of Lerch's transcendent
• Euler's constant, \(q\)-logarithms, and formulas of Ramanujan and Gosper
• Perfect powers in the summatory function of the power tower
• On a continued fraction expansion for Euler's constant
• On a sequence transformation with integral coefficients for Euler's constant. II.
• Extension of the four Euler sums being linear with parameters and series involving the zeta functions
• A Note on Beukers’s and Related Double Integrals
• Arithmetical properties of some series with logarithmic coefficients
• Legendre modified moments for Euler's constant
• Euler's constant: Euler's work and modern developments
• Modular spectral triples and deformed Fredholm modules
• Fourier analysis for type III representations of the noncommutative torus
• Rational approximation to Euler’s constant at a geometric rate of convergence
• Rational approximations for values of derivatives of the Gamma function
• Monotone and fast computation of Euler's constant
• Two parameterized series representations for the digamma function
• On a generalization of a formula of Ser and applications to the Riemann zeta function and to Dirichlet L-series
• On irrationality criteria for the Ramanujan summation of certain series
• Approximations to the Euler-Mascheroni constant
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Euler’s criterion for prime order in the PID case

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