Baselproblem

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TheBaselproblemisaprobleminmathematicalanalysiswithrelevancetonumbertheory,firstposedbyPietroMengoliin1644andsolvedbyLeonhardEulerin
1734[1]andreadon5December1735inTheSaintPetersburgAcademyofSciences.[2]Sincetheproblemhadwithstoodtheattacksoftheleadingmathematicians
oftheday,Euler'ssolutionbroughthimimmediatefamewhenhewastwentyeight.Eulergeneralisedtheproblemconsiderably,andhisideasweretakenupyears
laterbyBernhardRiemanninhisseminal1859paper"OntheNumberofPrimesLessThanaGivenMagnitude",inwhichhedefinedhiszetafunctionandproved
itsbasicproperties.TheproblemisnamedafterBasel,hometownofEuleraswellasoftheBernoullifamilywhounsuccessfullyattackedtheproblem.

TheBaselproblemasksfortheprecisesummationofthereciprocalsofthesquaresofthenaturalnumbers,i.e.theprecisesumoftheinfiniteseries:

Thesumoftheseriesisapproximatelyequalto1.644934 A013661.TheBaselproblemasksfortheexactsumofthisseries(inclosedform),aswellasaproof
2
thatthissumiscorrect.Eulerfoundtheexactsumtobe andannouncedthisdiscoveryin1735.Hisargumentswerebasedonmanipulationsthatwerenot
6
justifiedatthetime,althoughhewaslaterprovencorrect,anditwasnotuntil1741thathewasabletoproduceatrulyrigorousproof.

Contents
1 Euler'sapproach
2 TheRiemannzetafunction
3 ArigorousproofusingFourierseries
4 Arigorouselementaryproof
4.1 Historyofthisproof
4.2 Theproof
5 Seealso
6 References
7 Notes
8 Externallinks

Euler'sapproach
2
Euler'soriginalderivationofthevalue 6 essentiallyextendedobservationsaboutfinitepolynomialsandassumedthatthesesamepropertiesholdtrueforinfinite
series.

Ofcourse,Euler'soriginalreasoningrequiresjustification(100yearslater,KarlWeierstrassprovedthatEuler'srepresentationofthesinefunctionasaninfinite
productisvalid,bytheWeierstrassfactorizationtheorem),butevenwithoutjustification,bysimplyobtainingthecorrectvalue,hewasabletoverifyit
numericallyagainstpartialsumsoftheseries.Theagreementheobservedgavehimsufficientconfidencetoannouncehisresulttothemathematicalcommunity.

TofollowEuler'sargument,recalltheTaylorseriesexpansionofthesinefunction

Dividingthroughbyx,wehave

UsingtheWeierstrassfactorizationtheorem,itcanalsobeshownthatthelefthandsideistheproductoflinearfactorsgivenbyitsroots,justaswedoforfinite
polynomials(whichEulerassumed,butisnotalwaystrue):

sinx
Ifweformallymultiplyoutthisproductandcollectallthex2terms(weareallowedtodosobecauseofNewton'sidentities),weseethatthex2coefficientof x
is

sinx 1 1
Butfromtheoriginalinfiniteseriesexpansionof x ,thecoefficientofx2is 3! = 6 .Thesetwocoefficientsmustbeequalthus,

Multiplyingthroughbothsidesofthisequationby2givesthesumofthereciprocalsofthepositivesquareintegers.
TheRiemannzetafunction
TheRiemannzetafunction(s)isoneofthemostimportantfunctionsinmathematics,becauseofitsrelationshiptothedistributionoftheprimenumbers.The
functionisdefinedforanycomplexnumberswithrealpartgreaterthan1bythefollowingformula:

Takings=2,weseethat(2)isequaltothesumofthereciprocalsofthesquaresofthepositiveintegers:

Convergencecanbeprovenbytheintegraltest,orviathefollowinginequality:

Thisgivesustheupperbound2,andbecausetheinfinitesumhasnonegativeterms,itmustconvergetoavaluebetween0and2.Itcanbeshownthat(s)hasa
simpleexpressionintermsoftheBernoullinumberswheneversisapositiveeveninteger.Withs=2n:[3]

ArigorousproofusingFourierseries
UseParseval'sidentity(appliedtothefunctionf(x)=x)toobtain

where

forn0,anda0=0.Thus,

and

Therefore,

asrequired.

Arigorouselementaryproof
Thisisbyfarthemostelementarywellknownproofwhilemostproofsuseresultsfromadvancedmathematics,suchasFourieranalysis,complexanalysis,and
multivariablecalculus,thefollowingdoesnotevenrequiresinglevariablecalculus(althoughasinglelimitistakenattheend).

Foraproofusingtheresiduetheorem,seethelinkedarticle.
Historyofthisproof

TheproofgoesbacktoAugustinLouisCauchy(Coursd'Analyse,1821,NoteVIII).In1954,thisproofappearedinthebookofAkivaandIsaakYaglom
"NonelementaryProblemsinanElementaryExposition".Later,in1982,itappearedinthejournalEureka,attributedtoJohnScholes,butScholesclaimshe
learnedtheprooffromPeterSwinnertonDyer,andinanycasehemaintainstheproofwas"commonknowledgeatCambridgeinthelate1960s".

Theproof

Themainideabehindtheproofistoboundthepartial(finite)sums

2
betweentwoexpressions,eachofwhichwilltendto 6 asmapproachesinfinity.Thetwoexpressionsarederivedfrom
identitiesinvolvingthecotangentandcosecantfunctions.TheseidentitiesareinturnderivedfromdeMoivre'sformula,
andwenowturntoestablishingtheseidentities.

Letxbearealnumberwith0<x< ,andletnbeapositiveoddinteger.ThenfromdeMoivre'sformulaandthe
2
definitionofthecotangentfunction,wehave

Theinequality

isshown.Takingreciprocalsand
squaringgives
Fromthebinomialtheorem,wehave .

(Herecotnxisshorthandfor(cotx)n,andsimilarlyforothertrigonometricfunctions.)

Combiningthetwoequationsandequatingimaginarypartsgivestheidentity

r
Wetakethisidentity,fixapositiveintegerm,setn=2m+1,andconsiderxr=
2m+1 forr=1,2,,m.Thennxrisamultipleofandtherefore
sin(nxr)=0.So,

foreveryr=1,2,,m.Thevaluesxr=x1,x2,,xmaredistinctnumbersintheinterval0<xr< 2 .Sincethefunctioncot2xisonetooneonthis
interval,thenumberstr=cot2xraredistinctforr=1,2,,m.Bytheaboveequation,thesemnumbersaretherootsofthemthdegreepolynomial

ByVieta'sformulaswecancalculatethesumoftherootsdirectlybyexaminingthefirsttwocoefficientsofthepolynomial,andthiscomparisonshowsthat

Substitutingtheidentitycsc2x=cot2x+1,wehave

1 r
Nowconsidertheinequalitycot2x< x2 <csc2x(illustratedgeometricallyabove).Ifweaddupalltheseinequalitiesforeachofthenumbersxr= 2m+1 ,and
ifweusethetwoidentitiesabove,weget

2
(
)
Multiplyingthroughby 2m+1 ,thisbecomes
 2
Asmapproachesinfinity,theleftandrighthandexpressionseachapproach 6 ,sobythesqueezetheorem,

andthiscompletestheproof.

Seealso
Riemannzetafunction
Apry'sconstant

References
Weil,Andr(1983),NumberTheory:AnApproachThroughHistory,SpringerVerlag,ISBN0817631410.
Dunham,William(1999),Euler:TheMasterofUsAll,MathematicalAssociationofAmerica,ISBN0883853280.
Derbyshire,John(2003),PrimeObsession:BernhardRiemannandtheGreatestUnsolvedProbleminMathematics,JosephHenryPress,ISBN0309
085497.
Aigner,MartinZiegler,GnterM.(1998),ProofsfromTHEBOOK,Berlin,NewYork:SpringerVerlag
Edwards,HaroldM.(2001),Riemann'sZetaFunction,Dover,ISBN0486417409.

Notes
1.Ayoub,Raymond(1974)."Eulerandthezetafunction".Amer.Math.Monthly.81:106786.doi:10.2307/2319041.
2.E41Desummisserierumreciprocarum(http://eulerarchive.maa.org/pages/E041.html)
3.Arakawa,TsuneoIbukiyama,TomoyoshiKaneko,Masanobu(2014).BernoulliNumbersandZetaFunctions.Springer.p.61.

Externallinks
Aninfiniteseriesofsurprises(http://plus.maths.org/content/infiniteseriessurprises)byC.J.Sangwin
"Remarquessurunbeaurapportentrelesseriesdespuissancestantdirectesquereciproques"(PDF).(348kB),EnglishtranslationwithnotesofEulerspaper
byLucasWillisandThomasJ.Osler
"HowEulerdidit"(PDF).(265kB)
"TheinfiniteseriesofEulerandtheBernoulli'sspiceupacalculusclass"(PDF).(106kB)
"Evaluating(2)"(PDF).(184kB),FourteenproofscompiledbyRobinChapman
VisualizationofEuler'sfactorizationofthesinefunction(http://giphy.com/gifs/mathvisualizationalgorithmxThuW9Pyh8jXvfbrUc)

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Categories: Numbertheory ZetaandLfunctions Mathematicalproblems

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