English

Notes On An Approach To Apery's Constant

Number Theory 2024-02-27 v3

Abstract

The Basel problem, solved by Leonhard Euler in 1734, asks to resolve ζ(2)\zeta(2), the sum of the reciprocals of the squares of the natural numbers, i.e. the sum of the infinite series: \begin{equation} \sum_{i=1}^{\infty}\frac{1}{n^2}=\frac{1}{1^2}+\frac{1}{2^2}+\frac{1}{3^2}+\ldots\notag \end{equation} The same question is posed regarding the summation of the reciprocals of the cubes of the natural numbers, ζ(3)\zeta(3). The resulting constant is known as Apery's constant. A YouTube channel, 3BlueBrown, produced a video entitled, "Why is pi here? And why is it squared? A geometric answer to the Basel problem". The video presents the work of John W\"astlund. The equations can be extended to ζ(n)\zeta(n), but the geometric argument is lost. We try to explore these equations for ζ(n)\zeta(n).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2206.11256,
  title  = {Notes On An Approach To Apery's Constant},
  author = {Leon D. Fairbanks},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.11256},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

AMS-LaTeX, 67 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-24T12:00:35.395Z