It's prime time

Calculus Level 5

Problem:

Let P n P_n denote the n t h n^{th} prime number. Find the exact value of L L :

L = n = 1 ln P n P n 2 1 L=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{\ln P_n}{P_{n}^{2}-1}

Constants and functions:

In the answer choices, A A denotes the Glaisher-Kinkelin constant, γ \gamma denotes the Euler-Mascheroni constant, and ζ ( s ) \zeta (s) denotes the Riemann Zeta function, where ζ ( s ) \zeta '(s) denotes the first derivative of the Riemann Zeta function.

Extra information:

You don't need a calculator at any point in this problem.

ζ ( 2 ) ζ ( 2 ) \frac{\zeta '(2)}{\zeta (2)} 1 6 [ ln 2 π + γ 12 ln A ] × π 2 \frac16 \left[ \ln{2\pi} +\gamma - 12\ln{A} \right] \times \pi^2 12 ln A γ ln 2 π 12\ln{A} -\gamma -\ln{2\pi} ln 2 π + γ 12 ln A \ln{2\pi} +\gamma - 12\ln{A}

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1 solution

Theo Cannon
Jul 21, 2017

Solution:

I'm unsure as to whether there are better solutions, but here is the solution I came up with:

Take the Euler product form of the Riemann Zeta function for ( s ) > 1 \Re (s)>1 ζ ( s ) = n = 1 1 1 P n s \zeta (s)=\prod_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac1{1-P_{n}^{-s}} Taking the natural log of this and differentiating with respect to s s brings us to ζ ( s ) ζ ( s ) = n = 1 P n s ln P n 1 P n s \frac{\zeta '(s)}{\zeta (s)}=-\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{P_{n}^{-s}\ln P_n}{1-P_{n}^{-s}} which is easily seen to be equivalent to the following equation by multiplying each term in the series by P n s P n s \frac{P_n^s}{P_n^s} ζ ( s ) ζ ( s ) = n = 1 ln P n P n s 1 -\frac{\zeta '(s)}{\zeta (s)}=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{\ln P_n}{P_n^s-1} I eluded to this solution in the answer choices with ζ ( 2 ) ζ ( 2 ) \color{#D61F06} \frac{\zeta '(2)}{\zeta (2)} in order to make the solution less abstract for some observant people, but this answer is actually incorrect due to the sign being incorrect (it should be ζ ( 2 ) ζ ( 2 ) \color{#3D99F6} -\frac{\zeta '(2)}{\zeta (2)} ). From this equation you can get to an easy solution for the answer by putting in s = 2 s=2 , however none of the answers in the choices fit the form. In order to correct this, the value for ζ ( 2 ) = ζ ( 2 ) × [ ln 2 π + γ 12 ln A ] \zeta '(2)=\zeta (2) \times \left[ \ln{2\pi}+\gamma - 12\ln{A} \right] must be substituted in (for which I don't expect anyone to be able to remember ζ ( 2 ) \zeta '(2) ) of the top of their heads, I had to do some searching for this result). This brings the result of: L = 12 ln A γ ln 2 π \boxed{L= \color{#20A900} 12\ln{A}-\gamma-\ln{2\pi}} END OF SOLUTION

Extra/Irrelevant information:

In decimal notation this means L 0.56996099 L\approx 0.56996099\dots . By looking at the partial sums of the equation you can see that this series does not converge too quickly, for example if we define a sequence of partial sums by L x = n = 1 x ln P n P n 2 1 , x N L_x=\sum_{n=1}^{x} \frac{\ln P_n}{P_n^2-1}, \quad x \in \mathbb{N} and then look at a reasonably large value, for example L 1000 0.56983533 L_{1000} \approx 0.56983533\dots , which is only correct to 3dp.

Obviously this is a side effect of the general result ζ ( s ) ζ ( s ) = n = 1 ln P n P n s 1 , ( s ) > 1 -\frac{\zeta '(s)}{\zeta (s)}=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{\ln P_n}{P_n^s-1}, \quad \Re (s)>1 which means I technically found infinity results to extremely similar series, it just happens that the only value I could find for ζ ( s ) \zeta '(s) with ( s ) > 1 \Re (s)>1 was ζ ( 2 ) \zeta '(2) and so the problem for n = 1 ln P n P n 2 1 \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{\ln P_n}{P_{n}^{2}-1} is the one I settled with.

I don’t know if this problem is anywhere else on this website or the internet, but if it does and someone has a more elegant solution than mine I would love to see it.

Even without knowing the Euler product, someone could just see that only 1 answer is positive!

First Last - 3 years, 10 months ago

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Lol, didn't think about that. Good solution :)

Theo Cannon - 3 years, 10 months ago

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