What is a Closed-Form Number?

DOI10.2307/2589148MaRDI QIDQ2757372zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Timothy Y. Chow

Publication date 26 November 2001

Published in American Mathematical Monthly (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9805045

zbMATH Keywords

closed-form expressionselementary numbers

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Model theory (number-theoretic aspects) (11U09) Symbolic computation and algebraic computation (68W30)

Abstract: If a student asks for an antiderivative of exp(x^2), there is a standard reply: the answer is not an elementary function. But if a student asks for a closed-form expression for the real root of x = cos(x), there is no standard reply. We propose a definition of a closed-form expression for a number (as opposed to a *function*) that we hope will become standard. With our definition, the question of whether the root of x = cos(x) has a closed form is, perhaps surprisingly, still open. We show that Schanuel's conjecture in transcendental number theory resolves questions like this, and we also sketch some connections with Tarski's problem of the decidability of the first-order theory of the reals with exponentiation. Many (hopefully accessible) open problems are described.

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Cited in

(14)

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• What can we do with a solution?
• A closed-form solution might be given by a tree. Valuations of quadratic polynomials
• Multiplicative independence of algebraic numbers and expressions
• Exact multicentered static point charge source distributions in the Born-Infeld theory of nonlinear electromagnetism and presence of electric and magnetic currents
• Construction of copulas for bivariate failure rates
• Calcium. Computing in exact real and complex fields
• Can the Quadratrix Truly Square the Circle?
• Reduction of transcendental decision problems over the reals
• Revisiting the lack of general elementary closed-form expressions for Lévy -stable distributions with arbitrary parameters: a Mellin transform approach

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