Primes and products

Calculus Level 5

Find S = p 2 ( 1 + 2 p 2 1 ) \displaystyle S=\prod _{ p\ge 2 }^{ \infty }{ (1+\frac { 2 }{ { p }^{ 2 }-1 } ) } .

Where p p is a prime number that is p p only takes values 2 , 3 , 5 , 7 , 11...... 2,3,5,7,11......

If S S can be represented as a b \dfrac{a}{b} . Find a + b a+b

Details and Assumptions

1) a , b a,b are coprime positive integers.


The answer is 7.

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2 solutions

Kartik Sharma
Feb 21, 2015

Well, here we will use Euler product formula.

ζ ( s ) = n = 1 1 n s = p 1 1 p s \displaystyle \zeta(s) = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty}{\frac{1}{{n}^{s}}} = \prod_{p}{\frac{1}{1- {p}^{-s}}}

ζ ( 4 ) = p 1 1 p 4 \displaystyle \zeta(4) = \prod_{p}{\frac{1}{1 - {p}^{-4}}}

= p 1 1 p 2 p 1 1 + p 2 \displaystyle = \prod_{p}{\frac{1}{1 - {p}^{-2}}}\prod_{p}{\frac{1}{1 + {p}^{-2}}}

ζ ( 4 ) = ζ ( 2 ) p 1 1 + p 2 \displaystyle \zeta(4)= \zeta(2)\prod_{p}{\frac{1}{1 + {p}^{-2}}}

p 1 1 + p 2 = p p 2 p 2 + 1 = ζ ( 4 ) ζ ( 2 ) \displaystyle \prod_{p}{\frac{1}{1 + {p}^{-2}}} = \prod_{p}{\frac{{p}^{2}}{{p}^{2} + 1}} = \frac{\zeta(4)}{\zeta(2)}

p 1 1 p 2 = p p 2 p 2 1 = ζ ( 2 ) \displaystyle \prod_{p}{\frac{1}{1 - {p}^{-2}}} = \prod_{p}{\frac{{p}^{2}}{{p}^{2} - 1}} =\zeta(2)

p p 2 p 2 1 p p 2 p 2 + 1 = p p 2 + 1 p 2 1 = ζ ( 2 ) 2 ζ ( 4 ) \displaystyle \frac{\displaystyle \prod_{p}{\frac{{p}^{2}}{{p}^{2} - 1}}}{\displaystyle \prod_{p}{\frac{{p}^{2}}{{p}^{2} + 1}}} = \displaystyle \prod_{p}{\frac{{p}^{2} +1}{{p}^{2} -1}} = \frac{{\zeta(2)}^{2}}{\zeta(4)}

As one can easily simplify S S to the above form. We get the answer as -

( π 2 6 ) 2 π 4 90 = 5 2 \displaystyle \frac{\displaystyle {(\frac{{\pi}^{2}}{6})}^{2}}{\frac{\displaystyle {\pi}^{4}}{90}} = \displaystyle \boxed{\frac{5}{2}}

I thought this might be something difficult, so i looked it up and found the Euler product on wikipedia. Then, I used it to solve the question as above. Then I saw the proof for the Euler product identity. You can check it out here . Yes, high school algebra.

"Read Euler, read Euler, he is the master of us all." - Pierre-Simon Laplace

Raghav Vaidyanathan - 6 years, 3 months ago

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Love that quote. Euler truly is the master of us all, side by side with Gauss and perhaps Ramanujan and Galois.

Jake Lai - 6 years, 3 months ago

Yeah Thanks! For that proof!

Kartik Sharma - 6 years, 3 months ago
Ronak Agarwal
Feb 20, 2015

The answer is 5 2 \dfrac{5}{2}

Edit : For those who want analytical solution it is : ( ζ ( 2 ) 2 ) ζ ( 4 ) \dfrac{(\zeta{(2)}^2)}{\zeta{(4)}}

Any analytical solution to this? The algorithmic/numerical solution is 5/2.

Janardhanan Sivaramakrishnan - 6 years, 3 months ago

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Yes there is : ( ζ ( 2 ) 2 ) ζ ( 4 ) \dfrac{(\zeta{(2)}^2)}{\zeta{(4)}}

Ronak Agarwal - 6 years, 3 months ago

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What should i search online to get all that stuff, like riemann zeta function and eulers product etc, and that nasty sums , ? when i search gamma or riemann zeta function, all i get is some very poorly explained or too advanced stuffs

Mvs Saketh - 6 years, 3 months ago

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@Mvs Saketh Wikipedia page on riemann zeta function is the best.

Ronak Agarwal - 6 years, 3 months ago

Nice problem. I love employing Euler products.

Jake Lai - 6 years, 3 months ago

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