Fast convergence of generalized DeTemple sequences and the relation to the Riemann zeta function.

In this paper, we introduce new sequences, which generalize the celebrated DeTemple sequence, having enhanced speed of convergence. We also give a new representation for Euler's constant in terms of the Riemann zeta function evaluated at positive odd integers.

Introduction and preliminaries

As is well known, the celebrated Euler-Mascheroni sequence, is convergent to the Euler-Mascheroni constant  , and the rate of convergence is . In order to improve the rate of convergence, in [1], DeTemple modified the argument of the logarithm and showed that the sequence converges quadratically to γ. For more details as regards the approximation of the Euler constant with a very high accuracy, we mention the work of Sweeney [2], Bailey [3] and Alzer and Koumandos [4].

There are many famous unsolved problems associated with the properties of this constant; for example it is not known yet if the Euler constant is irrational. The Euler constant is an unusual constant and it seems unrelated to other known constants. However, there are many areas in which Euler’s constant appears, for example, probability theory, random matrix theory and Riemann hypothesis, etc. Recently, Agarwal et al. [5], Wang et al. [6-9] and Yang et al. [10] showed that the Euler-Mascheroni constant has important applications in the field of special functions. In a sense, its appearance in different mathematical areas can be regarded as possible connections between these subjects.

It is the aim of this article to develop a new direction to accelerate the speed of convergence of the sequence . For this purpose, we consider the sequence where and are suitable sequences, which are chosen in order to increase the speed of convergence of .

Note that we can write in the form of

If , with , and , then the sequence is convergent to .

To calculate the rate of convergence, we will utilize the Stolz lemma in the case of .

Lemma 1.1

Let and be two sequences of real numbers, having the following properties: Then the sequence is convergent, and .

;

the sequence is strictly decreasing;

there exists , with .

In the following, we are concerned with finding non-vanishing limits of the form where . The result will be better as the natural number k is large.

Note that using Lemma 1.1, it is enough to find the following limit:

We shall write the difference as a power series of .

First, we arrange the difference as

Then, using the power series representation of , we obtain

After some arrangement, we have or more convenient

The above relational expression (1.1) is useful, it will be used to establish our main results in subsequent sections.

Sequences of DeTemple type and relevant results

Let us consider certain special cases of and , which will enable us to establish the generalizations of some sequences from DeTemple [1] and Mortici [11].

Case 1. Suppose , for all and , for all .

In this case the sequences and are constant; let , for all and , for all .

In (1.1), the coefficient of becomes .

Subcase 1.1. If , then the coefficient of vanishes and therefore the speed of convergence is .

Finally, we obtain the sequence which for is the celebrated DeTemple sequence [1].

Subcase 1.2. If , then the term in is present, therefore the speed of convergence is .

Case 2. If , for all , then the sequence is constant. Suppose , for all and . Then

Subcase 2.1. Suppose for all . Taking the sum, we obtain The sequence becomes or, in a more suitable form, The speed of convergence of is . Note that the logarithm function in the above expression has definition for . Therefore, we obtain the following result.

Theorem 2.1

If we denote by the sequence (2.1) and by ω its limit, then converges quadratic to ω.

For , we obtain the sequence defined in Theorem 3.1 of [11].

Subcase 2.2. Suppose

Summing side by side, we obtain

The sequence has the form

The speed of convergence is . Note that the logarithm has definition for . This leads to the following assertion.

Theorem 2.2

If we denote by the sequence (2.2) and by ω its limit, then converges cubic to ω.

For , we obtain the sequence defined in Theorem 3.2 of [11].

Generalized DeTemple sequences

In this section we shall establish two generalized DeTemple sequences in terms of the condition .

Case 1. Suppose We would like to find the sequence such that (this vanishes; the nominator ). It follows that . Therefore , and this satisfies the initial condition . On the other hand, one has .

Equation (3.1) becomes Taking the sum from 2 to n and fixing , we obtain We remark that is the Leibniz’s sequence multiplied by the constant . This sequence is convergent, having the limit

Therefore, we obtain the sequence or, in more suitable form, with speed of convergence and limit .

Note that the logarithm function in the above expression has definition for . Hence, we have the following result.

Theorem 3.1

If we denote by the sequence (3.2), then converges quadratically to its limit .

It is clear that for we obtain DeTemple sequence.

Case 2. Note that

As above, we consider the sequence , .

We have seen that it satisfies the equality . Then and, in general,

Suppose

From , one has . Further, it follows that

On the other hand,

Hence, we deduce that

Taking the sum for k from 2 to n, we have

If we fix then we obtain

Hence,

Putting , then .

Further,

Consequently, we get the following result.

Theorem 3.2

The sequence has speed of convergence , where , .

It is easy to observe that and .

In order to find the limit of the sequence , we note that it is related to the harmonic sequence .

For , the limit of this sequence defined the celebrated Riemann zeta function , which is very important in mathematics. The speed of convergence of this sequence to its limit is described by the double inequality

Thus the sequence converges with speed of convergence .

A direct calculation gives Hence, where .

We have showed in Case 1 that .

Therefore, we obtain the following theorem.

Theorem 3.3

The sequence defined by Theorem  3.2 converges to with speed of convergence .

If we take in Theorem 3.3, then , where

Thus, we obtain the following assertion.

Corollary 3.1

The sequence defined by (3.3) converges to with speed of convergence .

Particular cases. For , the sequence is a DeTemple sequence.

For , the sequence is the sequence defined in Theorem 4.1 of [12].

For , the sequence is the sequence defined in Theorem 4.2 of [12].

We remark that the expressions from Theorem 3.3 and Corollary 3.1 concern the expansion of Euler’s constant in terms of the Riemann zeta function evaluated at positive odd integers. Therefore the constant γ can be approximated with a very high speed of convergence by the above expansions. For more details of the series representations of the Euler constant, we mention the work of Alzer, Karayannakis and Srivastava [12], Alzer and Koumandos [13] and Sofo [14].

Conclusion

Our method for accelerating the convergence of DeTemple type sequences is more general than the method introduced in [11] and [15] by Mortici. We support this statement by the large degree of freedom in choosing the sequences , and . In this way, we generalized sequences from [11] and introduced two new sequences which generalized DeTemple sequence having faster convergence rate.