English

Dickman polylogarithms and their constants

Mathematical Physics 2010-04-07 v1 Other Condensed Matter High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Classical Analysis and ODEs math.MP

Abstract

The Dickman function F(alpha) gives the asymptotic probability that a large integer N has no prime divisor exceeding N^alpha. It is given by a finite sum of generalized polylogarithms defined by the exquisite recursion L_k(alpha)=- int_alpha^{1/k} dx L_{k-1}(x/(1-x))/x with L_0(alpha)=1. The behaviour of these Dickman polylogarithms as alpha tends to 0 defines an intriguing series of constants, C_k. I conjecture that exp(gamma z)/Gamma(1-z) is the generating function for sum_{k\ge0} C_k z^k. I obtain high-precision evaluations of F(1/k), for integers k<11, and compare the Dickman problem with problems in condensed matter physics and quantum field theory.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1004.0519,
  title  = {Dickman polylogarithms and their constants},
  author = {David Broadhurst},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1004.0519},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

11 pages, LaTeX

R2 v1 2026-06-21T15:06:17.187Z