On the accuracy of asymptotic approximations to the log-gamma and Riemann-Siegel theta functions

Abstract: We give bounds on the error in the asymptotic approximation of the log-Gamma function

l n G a m m a (z)

for complex

z

in the right half-plane. These improve on earlier bounds by Behnke and Sommer (1962), Spira (1971), and Hare (1997). We show that

| R_{k + 1} (z) / T_{k} (z) | < s q r t p i k

for nonzero

z

in the right half-plane, where

T_{k} (z)

is the

k

-th term in the asymptotic series, and

R_{k + 1} (z)

is the error incurred in truncating the series after

k

terms. If

k l e | z |

, then the stronger bound

| R_{k + 1} (z) / T_{k} (z) | < (k / | z |)^{2} / (p i^{2} - 1) < 0.113

holds. Similarly for the asymptotic approximation of

l n G a m m a (z + f r a c 12)

, except that a factor

e t a_{k} = 1 / (1 - 2^{1 - 2 k})

multiplies some of the bounds. We deduce similar bounds for asymptotic approximation of the Riemann-Siegel theta function

v a r t h e t a (t)

. We show that the accuracy of a well-known approximation to

v a r t h e t a (t)

can be improved by including an exponentially small term in the approximation. This improves the attainable accuracy for real

t > 0

from

O (e x p (- p i t))

to

O (e x p (- 2 p i t))

. We discuss a similar example due to Olver (1964), and a connection with the Stokes phenomenon.

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