In
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, the Hurwitz zeta function is one of the many
zeta functions. It is formally defined for
complex
Complex commonly refers to:
* Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe
** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
variables with and by
:
This series is
absolutely convergent for the given values of and and can be extended to a
meromorphic function
In the mathematical field of complex analysis, a meromorphic function on an open subset ''D'' of the complex plane is a function that is holomorphic on all of ''D'' ''except'' for a set of isolated points, which are ''poles'' of the function. ...
defined for all . The
Riemann zeta function is . The Hurwitz zeta function is named after
Adolf Hurwitz
Adolf Hurwitz (; 26 March 1859 – 18 November 1919) was a German mathematician who worked on algebra, mathematical analysis, analysis, geometry and number theory.
Early life
He was born in Hildesheim, then part of the Kingdom of Hanover, to a ...
, who introduced it in 1882.
Integral representation
The Hurwitz zeta function has an integral representation
:
for
and
(This integral can be viewed as a
Mellin transform.) The formula can be obtained, roughly, by writing
:
and then interchanging the sum and integral.
The integral representation above can be converted to a
contour integral representation
:
where
is a
Hankel contour counterclockwise around the positive real axis, and the
principal branch is used for the
complex exponentiation . Unlike the previous integral, this integral is valid for all ''s'', and indeed is an
entire function
In complex analysis, an entire function, also called an integral function, is a complex-valued function that is holomorphic on the whole complex plane. Typical examples of entire functions are polynomials and the exponential function, and any ...
of ''s''.
The contour integral representation provides an
analytic continuation
In complex analysis, a branch of mathematics, analytic continuation is a technique to extend the domain of definition of a given analytic function. Analytic continuation often succeeds in defining further values of a function, for example in a ne ...
of
to all
. At
, it has a
simple pole with
residue .
Hurwitz's formula
The Hurwitz zeta function satisfies an identity which generalizes the
functional equation of the Riemann zeta function:
:
valid for Re(''s'') > 1 and 0 < ''a'' ≤ 1. The Riemann zeta functional equation is the special case ''a'' = 1:
:
Hurwitz's formula can also be expressed as
:
(for Re(''s'') < 0 and 0 < ''a'' ≤ 1).
Hurwitz's formula has a variety of different proofs. One proof uses the contour integration representation along with the
residue theorem
In complex analysis, the residue theorem, sometimes called Cauchy's residue theorem, is a powerful tool to evaluate line integrals of analytic functions over closed curves; it can often be used to compute real integrals and infinite series as well ...
.
A second proof uses a
theta function
In mathematics, theta functions are special functions of several complex variables. They show up in many topics, including Abelian varieties, moduli spaces, quadratic forms, and solitons. Theta functions are parametrized by points in a tube ...
identity, or equivalently
Poisson summation. These proofs are analogous to the two proofs of the functional equation for the Riemann zeta function in
Riemann's 1859 paper. Another proof of the Hurwitz formula uses
Euler–Maclaurin summation to express the Hurwitz zeta function as an integral
:
(−1 < Re(''s'') < 0 and 0 < ''a'' ≤ 1) and then expanding the numerator as a
Fourier series
A Fourier series () is an Series expansion, expansion of a periodic function into a sum of trigonometric functions. The Fourier series is an example of a trigonometric series. By expressing a function as a sum of sines and cosines, many problems ...
.
Functional equation for rational ''a''
When ''a'' is a rational number, Hurwitz's formula leads to the following
functional equation: For integers
,
:
holds for all values of ''s''.
This functional equation can be written as another equivalent form:
.
Some finite sums
Closely related to the functional equation are the following finite sums, some of which may be evaluated in a closed form
:
:
:
where ''m'' is positive integer greater than 2 and ''s'' is complex, see e.g. Appendix B in.
Series representation
A convergent
Newton series representation defined for (real) ''a'' > 0 and any complex ''s'' ≠ 1 was given by
Helmut Hasse in 1930:
:
This series converges uniformly on
compact subsets of the ''s''-plane to an
entire function
In complex analysis, an entire function, also called an integral function, is a complex-valued function that is holomorphic on the whole complex plane. Typical examples of entire functions are polynomials and the exponential function, and any ...
. The inner sum may be understood to be the ''n''th
forward difference of
; that is,
:
where Δ is the
forward difference operator. Thus, one may write:
:
Taylor series
The partial derivative of the zeta in the second argument is a
shift:
:
Thus, the
Taylor series
In mathematics, the Taylor series or Taylor expansion of a function is an infinite sum of terms that are expressed in terms of the function's derivatives at a single point. For most common functions, the function and the sum of its Taylor ser ...
can be written as:
:
Alternatively,
:
with
.
Closely related is the Stark–Keiper formula:
:
which holds for integer ''N'' and arbitrary ''s''. See also
Faulhaber's formula for a similar relation on finite sums of powers of integers.
Laurent series
The
Laurent series
In mathematics, the Laurent series of a complex function f(z) is a representation of that function as a power series which includes terms of negative degree. It may be used to express complex functions in cases where a Taylor series expansio ...
expansion can be used to define generalized
Stieltjes constants that occur in the series
:
In particular, the constant term is given by
:
where
is the
gamma function
In mathematics, the gamma function (represented by Γ, capital Greek alphabet, Greek letter gamma) is the most common extension of the factorial function to complex numbers. Derived by Daniel Bernoulli, the gamma function \Gamma(z) is defined ...
and
is the
digamma function
In mathematics, the digamma function is defined as the logarithmic derivative of the gamma function:
:\psi(z) = \frac\ln\Gamma(z) = \frac.
It is the first of the polygamma functions. This function is Monotonic function, strictly increasing a ...
. As a special case,
.
Discrete Fourier transform
The
discrete Fourier transform
In mathematics, the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) converts a finite sequence of equally-spaced Sampling (signal processing), samples of a function (mathematics), function into a same-length sequence of equally-spaced samples of the discre ...
of the Hurwitz zeta function with respect to the order ''s'' is the
Legendre chi function.
Particular values
Negative integers
The values of ''ζ''(''s'', ''a'') at ''s'' = 0, −1, −2, ... are related to the
Bernoulli polynomials
In mathematics, the Bernoulli polynomials, named after Jacob Bernoulli, combine the Bernoulli numbers and binomial coefficients. They are used for series expansion of functions, and with the Euler–MacLaurin formula.
These polynomials occur ...
:
:
For example, the
case gives
:
''s''-derivative
The
partial derivative
In mathematics, a partial derivative of a function of several variables is its derivative with respect to one of those variables, with the others held constant (as opposed to the total derivative, in which all variables are allowed to vary). P ...
with respect to ''s'' at ''s'' = 0 is related to the gamma function:
:
In particular,
The formula is due to
Lerch.
Relation to Jacobi theta function
If
is the Jacobi
theta function
In mathematics, theta functions are special functions of several complex variables. They show up in many topics, including Abelian varieties, moduli spaces, quadratic forms, and solitons. Theta functions are parametrized by points in a tube ...
, then
: