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Criteria for irrationality of Euler's constant
Author(s):
Jonathan
Sondow
Journal:
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.
131
(2003),
3335-3344.
MSC (2000):
Primary 11J72;
Secondary 05A19
Posted:
March 11, 2003
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Abstract:
By modifying Beukers' proof of Apéry's theorem that is irrational, we derive criteria for irrationality of Euler's constant, . For , we define a double integral and a positive integer , and prove that with the following are equivalent: 1. The fractional part of is given by for some . 2. The formula holds for all sufficiently large . 3. Euler's constant is a rational number. A corollary is that if infinitely often, then is irrational. Indeed, if the inequality holds for a given (we present numerical evidence for and is rational, then its denominator does not divide . We prove a new combinatorial identity in order to show that a certain linear form in logarithms is in fact . A by-product is a rapidly converging asymptotic formula for , used by P. Sebah to compute correct to 18063 decimals.
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Additional Information:
Jonathan
Sondow
Affiliation:
209 West 97th Street, New York, New York 10025
Email:
jsondow@alumni.princeton.edu
DOI:
10.1090/S0002-9939-03-07081-3
PII:
S 0002-9939(03)07081-3
Keywords:
Irrationality,
Euler's constant,
Ap\'ery's theorem,
Beukers' integrals,
linear form in logarithms,
fractional part,
harmonic number,
Prime Number Theorem,
Laplace's method,
asymptotic formula,
combinatorial identity
Received by editor(s):
June 4, 2002
Posted:
March 11, 2003
Communicated by:
David E. Rohrlich
Copyright of article:
Copyright
2003,
American Mathematical Society
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