Problem:
Let denote the prime number. Find the exact value of :
Constants and functions:
In the answer choices, denotes the Glaisher-Kinkelin constant, denotes the Euler-Mascheroni constant, and denotes the Riemann Zeta function, where denotes the first derivative of the Riemann Zeta function.
Extra information:
You don't need a calculator at any point in this problem.
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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 ℜ ( s ) > 1 ζ ( s ) = n = 1 ∏ ∞ 1 − P n − s 1 Taking the natural log of this and differentiating with respect to s brings us to ζ ( s ) ζ ′ ( s ) = − n = 1 ∑ ∞ 1 − P n − s P n − s ln P n 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 − ζ ( s ) ζ ′ ( s ) = n = 1 ∑ ∞ P n s − 1 ln P n I eluded to this solution in the answer choices with ζ ( 2 ) ζ ′ ( 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 ) ). From this equation you can get to an easy solution for the answer by putting in 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 − 1 2 ln A ] must be substituted in (for which I don't expect anyone to be able to remember ζ ′ ( 2 ) ) of the top of their heads, I had to do some searching for this result). This brings the result of: L = 1 2 ln A − γ − ln 2 π END OF SOLUTION
Extra/Irrelevant information:
In decimal notation this means L ≈ 0 . 5 6 9 9 6 0 9 9 … . 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 P n 2 − 1 ln P n , x ∈ N and then look at a reasonably large value, for example L 1 0 0 0 ≈ 0 . 5 6 9 8 3 5 3 3 … , which is only correct to 3dp.
Obviously this is a side effect of the general result − ζ ( s ) ζ ′ ( s ) = n = 1 ∑ ∞ P n s − 1 ln P n , ℜ ( 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 ) with ℜ ( s ) > 1 was ζ ′ ( 2 ) and so the problem for n = 1 ∑ ∞ P n 2 − 1 ln P n 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.