Can anybody prove this about the zeta function?

Does the following always hold? And if so can you prove it k=2nζ(k)=n1 \left\lfloor\sum_{k=2}^n\zeta(k)\right\rfloor=n-1

#RiemannZetaFunction #Summation #FloorFunction

Note by A Former Brilliant Member
6 years, 8 months ago

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Comments

First, observe that

k=2(ζ(k)1)=k=2(n=11nk1)=n=2k=21nk=1\displaystyle\sum _{ k=2 }^{ \infty }{ \left( \zeta \left( k \right) -1 \right) } =\displaystyle\sum _{ k=2 }^{ \infty }{ \left( \displaystyle\sum _{ n=1 }^{ \infty }{ \frac { 1 }{ { n }^{ k } } } -1 \right) } =\displaystyle\sum _{ n=2 }^{ \infty }{ \sum _{ k=2 }^{ \infty }{ \frac { 1 }{ { n }^{ k } } } } =1

In other words, the sum of all the fractions of ζ(n)\zeta \left( n \right) from n=2n=2 to infinity is exactly 1. With a bit of handwaving here, it can be surmised that the sum of nn Zeta functions starting at n=2n=2 is n1+an-1+a, where 0<a<0<a<. Hence the floor value is n1n-1.

This proof-toid is incomplete because we need to prove additional lemmas, such as ζ(n)>ζ(n+1)>1\zeta \left( n \right) >\zeta \left( n+1 \right) >1 for all nn. But this is the gist of the proof anyway.

Michael Mendrin - 6 years, 8 months ago

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Indeed, k=2(ζ(k)1)=1\sum_{k = 2}^\infty (\zeta(k) - 1) = 1 is the key identity. The rest of the proof is quite simple.

Each term ζ(k)1\zeta(k) - 1 is positive. It follows that 0<k=2n(ζ(k)1)<1.0 < \sum_{k = 2}^n (\zeta(k) - 1) < 1. Then n1<k=2nζ(k)<n,n - 1 < \sum_{k = 2}^n \zeta(k) < n, as desired.

Jon Haussmann - 6 years, 8 months ago

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Very nice!

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 8 months ago

Interesting method. I tried squeezing it however I am having trouble establishing a good integer upper bound.

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 8 months ago
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