Apéry's constant

In mathematics, at the intersection of number theory and special functions, Apéry's constant is defined as the number

$\zeta(3) = \sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{1}{n^3} = \lim_{n \to \infty}\left(\frac{1}{1^3} + \frac{1}{2^3} + \cdots + \frac{1}{n^3}\right)$

where ζ is the Riemann zeta function. It has an approximate value of^[1]

ζ(3) = 1.202056903159594285399738161511449990764986292… (sequence A002117 in OEIS).

List of numbers Irrational and suspected irrational numbers γ ζ(3) √2 √3 √5 φ ρ δS e π δ
Binary	1.0011001110111010…
Decimal	1.2020569031595942854…
Hexadecimal	1.33BA004F00621383…
Continued fraction	$1 + \frac{1}{4 + \cfrac{1}{1 + \cfrac{1}{18 + \cfrac{1}{\ddots\qquad{}}}}}$ Note that this continued fraction is infinite, but it is not known whether this continued fraction is periodic or not.

This constant arises naturally in a number of physical problems, including in the second- and third-order terms of the electron's gyromagnetic ratio using quantum electrodynamics. It also arises in the analysis of random minimum spanning trees^[2] and in conjunction with the gamma function when solving certain integrals involving exponential functions in a quotient which appear occasionally in physics, for instance when evaluating the two-dimensional case of the Debye model and the Stefan–Boltzmann law.

Irrational number

ζ(3) was named Apéry's constant for the French mathematician Roger Apéry, who proved in 1978 that it is irrational.^[3] This result is known as Apéry's theorem. The original proof is complex and hard to grasp,^[4] and simpler proofs were found later.^[5][6]

It is still not known whether Apéry's constant is transcendental.

Series representations

Classical

In 1772, Leonhard Euler gave the series representation:^[7]

$\zeta(3)=\frac{\pi^2}{7} \left[ 1-4\sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac {\zeta (2k)} {2^{2k}(2k+1)(2k+2)} \right]$

which was subsequently rediscovered several times.^[8]

Other classical series representations include:

$\zeta(3) = \frac{8}{7} \sum_{k=0}^\infty \frac{1}{(2k+1)^3}$

$\zeta(3) = \frac{4}{3} \sum_{k=0}^\infty \frac{(-1)^k}{(k+1)^3}$

Fast convergence

Since the 19th century, a number of mathematicians have found convergence acceleration series for calculating decimal places of ζ(3). Since the 1990s, this search has focused on computationally efficient series with fast convergence rates (see section "Known digits").

The following series representation was found by Hjortnaes in 1953,^[9] then rediscovered and widely advertised by Apéry in 1979:^[3]

$\zeta(3) = \frac{5}{2} \sum_{k=1}^\infty (-1)^{k-1} \frac{k!^2}{(2k)!k^3} = \frac{5}{2} \sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{(-1)^{k-1}}{\tbinom{2k}{k} k^3}$

The following series representation, found by Amdeberhan in 1996,^[10] gives (asymptotically) 1.43 new correct decimal places per term:

$\zeta(3) = \frac{1}{4} \sum_{k=1}^\infty (-1)^{k-1} \frac{56k^2 - 32k + 5}{(2k-1)^2} \frac{(k-1)!^3}{(3k)!}$

The following series representation, found by Amdeberhan and Zeilberger in 1997,^[11] gives (asymptotically) 3.01 new correct decimal places per term:

$\zeta(3) = \sum_{k=0}^\infty (-1)^k \frac{205k^2 + 250k + 77}{64} \frac{k!^{10}}{(2k+1)!^5}$

The following series representation, found by Sebastian Wedeniwski in 1998,^[12] gives (asymptotically) 5.04 new correct decimal places per term:

$\zeta(3) = \sum_{k=0}^\infty (-1)^k \frac{((2k+1)!(2k)!k!)^3}{24(3k+2)!(4k+3)!^3}\,P(k)$

where

$P(k) = 126\,392k^5 + 412\,708k^4 + 531\,578k^3 + 336\,367k^2 + 104\,000k + 12\,463.\,$

It was used by Wedeniwski to calculate Apéry's constant with several million correct decimal places.^[13]

The following series representation, found by Mohamud Mohammed in 2005,^[14] gives (asymptotically) 3.92 new correct decimal places per term:

$\zeta(3) = \frac{1}{2}\,\sum_{k=0}^\infty \frac{(-1)^k(2k)!^3(k+1)!^6}{(k+1)!^2(3k+3)!^4}\,P(k)$

where

$P(k) = 40\,885k^5 + 124\,346k^4 + 150\,160k^3 + 89\,888k^2 + 26\,629k + 3116.\,$

The following series representation has an undetermined source:

$\zeta(3) = \frac{8}{7}-\frac{8}{7}\sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{{\left( -1 \right) }^k\,2^{12k-5}\,k\, \left( 7168k^5 - 2688k^4 - 432k^3 + 148k^2 + 9k - 3 \right) \, {k!}^3\,{\left( 2k-1 \right) !}^6}{{\left( 2k-1 \right) }^3\, \left( 3k \right) !\,{\left( 4k+1 \right) !}^3}.$

Digit by digit

In 1998, Broadhurst^[15] gave a series representation that allows arbitrary binary digits to be computed, and thus, for the constant to be obtained in nearly linear time, and logarithmic space.

Others

The following series representation was found by Ramanujan:^[16]

$\zeta(3)=\frac{7}{180}\pi^3 -2 \sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{1}{k^3 (e^{2\pi k} -1)}$

The following series representation was found by Simon Plouffe in 1998:^[17]

$\zeta(3)= 14 \sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{1}{k^3 \sinh(\pi k)}-\frac{11}{2}\sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{1}{k^3 (e^{2\pi k} -1)}-\frac{7}{2} \sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{1}{k^3 (e^{2\pi k} +1)}.$

Srivastava^[18] collected many series that converge to Apéry's constant.

Integral representations

There are numerous integral representations for Apéry's constant. Some of them are simple, others are more complicated.

Simple formulas

For example, this one follows from the summation representation for Apéry's constant:

$\zeta(3) =\int\limits_0^1 \int\limits_0^1 \int\limits_0^1 \! \frac{1}{1-xyz}\, dx\,dy\,dz$.

The next two follow directly from the well-known integral formulas for the Riemann zeta function:

$\zeta(3) =\frac{1}{2}\int\limits_0^\infty \! \frac{x^2}{e^x-1}\, dx$

and

$\zeta(3) =\frac{2}{3}\int\limits_0^\infty \! \frac{x^2}{e^x+1}\, dx$.

More complicated formulas

For example, one formula was found by Johan Jensen:^[19]

$\zeta(3)=\pi\!\!\int\limits_{0}^{\infty} \! \frac{\cos(2\arctan\,x)}{\left(x^2+1\right)\left(\cosh\frac{1}{2}\pi x\right)^2}\, dx$,

another by F. Beukers:^[5]

$\zeta(3) =-\frac{1}{2}\int\limits_0^1 \!\!\int\limits_0^1 \frac{\ln(xy)}{\,1-xy\,}\, dx \, dy$,

and yet another by Iaroslav Blagouchine:^[20]

$\zeta(3) =\,\frac{8\pi^2}{7}\!\!\int\limits_0^1 \! \frac{x\left(x^4-4x^2+1\right)\ln\ln\frac{1}{x}}{\,(1+x^2)^4\,}\, dx \,=\,\frac{8\pi^2}{7}\!\!\int\limits_1^\infty \!\frac{x\left(x^4-4x^2+1\right)\ln\ln{x}}{\,(1+x^2)^4\,}\, dx$.

Evgrafov et al.'s connection to the derivatives of the gamma function

$\zeta(3) = -\tfrac{1}{2}\Gamma'''(1)+\tfrac{3}{2}\Gamma'(1)\Gamma''(1)- \left(\Gamma'(1)\right)^3 = -\tfrac{1}{2} \, \psi^{(2)}(1)$

is also very useful for the derivation of various integral representations via the known integral formulas for the gamma and polygamma-functions.^[21]

Known digits

The number of known digits of Apéry's constant ζ(3) has increased dramatically during the last decades. This is due both to the increasing performance of computers and to algorithmic improvements.

Number of known decimal digits of Apéry's constant ζ(3)

Date	Decimal digits	Computation performed by
1735	16	Leonhard Euler
unknown	16	Adrien-Marie Legendre
1887	32	Thomas Joannes Stieltjes
1996	520,000	Greg J. Fee & Simon Plouffe
1997	1,000,000	Bruno Haible & Thomas Papanikolaou
May 1997	10,536,006	Patrick Demichel
February 1998	14,000,074	Sebastian Wedeniwski
March 1998	32,000,213	Sebastian Wedeniwski
July 1998	64,000,091	Sebastian Wedeniwski
December 1998	128,000,026	Sebastian Wedeniwski[1]
September 2001	200,001,000	Shigeru Kondo & Xavier Gourdon
February 2002	600,001,000	Shigeru Kondo & Xavier Gourdon
February 2003	1,000,000,000	Patrick Demichel & Xavier Gourdon[22]
April 2006	10,000,000,000	Shigeru Kondo & Steve Pagliarulo
January 2009	15,510,000,000	Alexander J. Yee & Raymond Chan[23]
March 2009	31,026,000,000	Alexander J. Yee & Raymond Chan[23]
September 2010	100,000,001,000	Alexander J. Yee[24]
September 2013	200,000,001,000	Robert J. Setti[24]
August 2015	250,000,000,000	Ron Watkins[24]
November 2015	400,000,000,000	Dipanjan Nag[25]

Reciprocal

The reciprocal of ζ(3) is the probability that any three positive integers, chosen at random, will be relatively prime (in the sense that as N goes to infinity, the probability that three positive integers less than N chosen uniformly at random will be relatively prime approaches this value).

Extension to ζ(2n + 1)

Many people have tried to extend Apéry's proof that ζ(3) is irrational to other odd zeta values. In 2000, Tanguy Rivoal showed that infinitely many of the numbers ζ(2n + 1) must be irrational.^[26] In 2001, Wadim Zudilin proved that at least one of the numbers ζ(5), ζ(7), ζ(9), and ζ(11) must be irrational.^[27]

See also

• Riemann zeta function
• Basel problem — ζ(2)
• List of sums of reciprocals

Notes

1. See Wedeniwski 2001.
2. See Frieze 1985.
3. See Apéry 1979.
4. See van der Poorten 1979.
5. See Beukers 1979.
6. See Zudilin 2002.
7. See Euler 1773.
8. See Srivastava 2000, p. 571 (1.11).
9. See Hjortnaes 1953.
10. See Amdeberhan 1996.
11. See Amdeberhan & Zeilberger 1997.
12. See Wedeniwski 1998 and Wedeniwski 2001. In his message to Simon Plouffe, Sebastian Wedeniwski states that he derived this formula from Amdeberhan & Zeilberger 1997. The discovery year (1998) is mentioned in Simon Plouffe's Table of Records (8 April 2001).
13. See Wedeniwski 1998 and Wedeniwski 2001.
14. See Mohammed 2005.
15. See Broadhurst 1998.
16. See Berndt 1989, chapter 14, formulas 25.1 and 25.3.
17. See Plouffe 1998.
18. See Srivastava 2000.
19. See Jensen 1895.
20. See Blagouchine 2014.
21. See Evgrafov et al. 1969, exercise 30.10.1.
22. See Gourdon & Sebah 2003.
23. See Yee 2009.
24. See Yee 2015.
25. See Nag 2015.
26. See Rivoal 2000.
27. See Zudilin 2001.

References

• Amdeberhan, Tewodros (1996), "Faster and faster convergent series for ζ(3)", El. J. Combinat. 3 (1).
• Amdeberhan, Tewodros; Zeilberger, Doron (1997), "Hypergeometric Series Acceleration Via the WZ method", El. J. Combinat. 4 (2).
• Apéry, Roger (1979), "Irrationalité de ζ(2) et ζ(3)", Astérisque 61: 11–13.
• Berndt, Bruce C. (1989), Ramanujan's notebooks, Part II, Springer.
• Beukers, F. (1979), "A Note on the Irrationality of ζ(2) and ζ(3)", Bull. London Math. Soc. 11: 268–272, doi:10.1112/blms/11.3.268.
• Blagouchine, Iaroslav V. (2014), "Rediscovery of Malmsten’s integrals, their evaluation by contour integration methods and some related results", The Ramanujan Journal 35 (1): 21–110, doi:10.1007/s11139-013-9528-5.
• Broadhurst, D.J. (1998), Polylogarithmic ladders, hypergeometric series and the ten millionth digits of ζ(3) and ζ(5), arXiv:math.CA/9803067.
• Euler, Leonhard (1773), "Exercitationes analyticae" (PDF), Novi Commentarii academiae scientiarum Petropolitanae (in Latin) 17: 173–204, retrieved 2008-05-18.
• Evgrafov, M. A.; Bezhanov, K. A.; Sidorov, Y. V.; Fedoriuk, M. V.; Shabunin, M. I. (1969), A Collection of Problems in the Theory of Analytic Functions [in Russian], Moscow: Nauka.
• Frieze, A. M. (1985), "On the value of a random minimum spanning tree problem", Discrete Applied Mathematics 10 (1): 47–56, doi:10.1016/0166-218X(85)90058-7, MR 770868.
• Gourdon, Xavier; Sebah, Pascal (2003), The Apéry's constant: ζ(3).
• Hjortnaes, M. M. (August 1953), Overføring av rekken $\sum_{k=1}^\infty(\frac{1}{k^3})$ til et bestemt integral, in Proc. 12th Scandinavian Mathematical Congress, Lund, Sweden: Scandinavian Mathematical Society, pp. 211–213.
• Jensen, Johan Ludwig William Valdemar (1895), "Note numéro 245. Deuxième réponse. Remarques relatives aux réponses du MM. Franel et Kluyver", L'Intermédiaire des mathématiciens (Gauthier-Villars) II: 346–347.
• Mohammed, Mohamud (2005), "Infinite families of accelerated series for some classical constants by the Markov-WZ method", Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (Springer) 7: 11–24.
• Plouffe, Simon (1998), Identities inspired from Ramanujan Notebooks II.
• Plouffe, Simon, Zeta(3) or Apéry constant to 2000 places.
• Ramaswami, V. (1934), "Notes on Riemann's ζ-function", J. London Math. Soc. 9 (3): 165–169, doi:10.1112/jlms/s1-9.3.165.
• Rivoal, Tanguy (2000), "La fonction zêta de Riemann prend une infinité de valeurs irrationnelles aux entiers impairs", Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences. Série I. Mathématique 331 (4): 267–270, arXiv:math/0008051, Bibcode:2000CRASM.331..267R, doi:10.1016/S0764-4442(00)01624-4.
• Setti, Robert J. (2015), Apéry's Constant - Zeta(3) - 200 Billion Digits.
• Srivastava, H. M. (December 2000), "Some Families of Rapidly Convergent Series Representations for the Zeta Functions" (PDF), Taiwanese Journal of Mathematics 4 (4): 569–599, OCLC 36978119, retrieved 2015-08-22.
• van der Poorten, Alfred (1979), "A proof that Euler missed ... Apéry’s proof of the irrationality of ζ(3)" (PDF), The Mathematical Intelligencer 1 (4): 195–203, doi:10.1007/BF03028234.
• Wedeniwski, Sebastian (2001), Simon Plouffe, ed., The Value of Zeta(3) to 1,000,000 places, Project Gutenberg (Message to Simon Plouffe, with all decimal places but a shorter text edited by Simon Plouffe).
• Wedeniwski, Sebastian (13 December 1998), The Value of Zeta(3) to 1,000,000 places (Message to Simon Plouffe, with original text but only some decimal places).
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• Yee, Alexander J. (2015), Zeta(3) - Apéry's Constant

• Nag, Dipanjan (2015), Calculated Apéry’s constant to 400,000,000,000 Digit, A world record
• Zudilin, Wadim (2001), "One of the numbers ζ(5), ζ(7), ζ(9), ζ(11) is irrational", Russ. Math. Surv. 56 (4): 774–776, Bibcode:2001RuMaS..56..774Z, doi:10.1070/RM2001v056n04ABEH000427.
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