Related papers: Irrationality proofs \`a la Hermite

We point out that the proof of irrationality of $\pi$ by Niven can be modified to a proof by contraposition. As a warm-up, we also give a proof of irrationality of $\sqrt{2}$ and $\sqrt{3}$ in a similar way.

Ivan Niven's succinct proof that pi is irrational is easy to verify, but it begins with a magical formula that appears to come out of nowhere, and whose origin remains mysterious even after one goes through the proof. The goal of this…

We use recurrences of integrals to give new and elementary proofs of the irrationality of pi, tan(r) for all nonzero rational r, and cos(r) for all nonzero rational r^2. Immediate consequences to other values of the elementary…

Given a rational number $r$ such that $2r$ is not an integer, we prove that $\tan^2(r\pi)$ is irrational unless it is equal to $0$, $1$, $3$ or $\frac{1}{3}$, using only basic trigonometry and the Rational Root Theorem. Moreover, we deduce…

In this note we show how the irrationality measure of $\zeta(s) = \pi^2/6$ can be used to obtain explicit lower bounds for $\pi(x)$. We analyze the key ingredients of the proof of the finiteness of the irrationality measure, and show how to…

To account for the first proof of existence of an irrational magnitude, historians of science as well as commentators of Aristotle refer to the texts on the incommensurability of the diagonal in Prior Analytics, since they are the most…

It is a classical fact that the irrationality of a number $\xi\in\mathbb R$ follows from the existence of a sequence $p_n/q_n$ with integral $p_n$ and $q_n$ such that $q_n\xi-p_n\ne0$ for all $n$ and $q_n\xi-p_n\to0$ as $n\to\infty$. In…

The first estimate of the upper bound $\mu(\pi)\leq42$ of the irrationality measure of the number $\pi$ was computed by Mahler in 1953, and more recently it was reduced to $\mu(\pi)\leq7.6063$ by Salikhov in 2008. Here, it is shown that…

This survey text deals with irrationality, and linear independence over the rationals, of values at positive odd integers of Riemann zeta function. The first section gives all known proofs (and connections between them) of Ap\'ery's Theorem…

In this work, we prove the irrationality of $\pi$ based on the nested radicals with roots of $2$ of kind $c_k = \sqrt{2 + c_{k - 1}}$ and $c_0 = 0$. Sample computations showing how the rational approximation tends to $\pi$ with increasing…

We use a variant of Salikhov's ingenious proof that the irrationality measure of $\pi$ is at most $7.606308\dots$ to prove that, in fact, it is at most $7.103205334137\dots$. Accompanying Maple package: While this article has a fully…

We show how one can use Hermite-Pad\'{e} approximation and little $q$-Jacobi polynomials to construct rational approximants for $\zeta_q(2)$. These numbers are $q$-analogues of the well known $\zeta(2)$. Here $q=\frac{1}{p}$, with $p$ an…

We present a brief survey of the methods used in deducing upper estimates for irrationality measures of the logarithm values. We particularly expose the best known estimates for $\log2$ (due to E. Rukhadze), $\pi$ (due to M. Hata) and…

A folklore proof of Euclid's theorem on the infinitude of primes uses the Euler product and the irrationality of $\zeta(2) = \pi^2/6$. A quantified form of Euclid's Theorem is Bertrand's postulate $p_{n+1} < 2p_n$. By quantifying the…

Roger Apery's seminal method for proving irrationality is "turned on its head" and taught to computers, enabling a one second redux of the original proof of zeta(3), and many new irrationality proofs of many new constants, alas, none of…

This paper presents a complete formal verification of a proof that the evaluation of the Riemann zeta function at 3 is irrational, using the Coq proof assistant. This result was first presented by Ap\'ery in 1978, and the proof we have…

In this note, I develop step-by-step proofs of irrationality for $\,\zeta{(2)}\,$ and $\,\zeta{(3)}$. Though the proofs follow closely those based upon unit-square integrals proposed originally by Beukers, I introduce some modifications…

In the literature, we have various ways of proving irrationality of a real number. In this survey article, we shall emphasize on a particular criterion to prove irrationality. This is called nice approximation of a number by a sequence of…

In this paper we show how one can obtain simultaneous rational approximants for $\zeta_q(1)$ and $\zeta_q(2)$ with a common denominator by means of Hermite-Pade approximation using multiple little q-Jacobi polynomials and we show that…

We give three elementary proofs of a nice equality of definite integrals, which arises from the theory of bivariate hypergeometric functions, and has connections with irrationality proofs in number theory. We furthermore provide a…