Friday, 23 March 2007

nt.number theory - Is there a "finitary" solution to the Basel problem?

Gabor Toth's Glimpses of Algebra and Geometry contains the following beautiful proof (perhaps I should say "interpretation") of the formula displaystylefracpi4=1frac13+frac15mp...displaystylefracpi4=1frac13+frac15mp..., which I don't think I've ever seen before. Given a non-negative integer rr, let N(r)N(r) be the number of ordered pairs (a,b)inmathbbZ2(a,b)inmathbbZ2 such that a2+b2ler2a2+b2ler2, i.e. the number of lattice points in the ball of radius rr. Then if r2(n)r2(n) is the number of ordered pairs (a,b)inmathbbZ2(a,b)inmathbbZ2 such that a2+b2=na2+b2=n, it follows that N(r2)=1+r2(1)+...+r2(r2)N(r2)=1+r2(1)+...+r2(r2).



On the other hand, once one has characterized the primes which are a sums of squares, it's not hard to show that r2(n)=4(d1(n)d3(n))r2(n)=4(d1(n)d3(n)) where di(n)di(n) is the number of divisors of nn congruent to ibmod4ibmod4. So we want to count the number of divisors of numbers less than or equal to r2r2 congruent to ibmod4ibmod4 for i=1,3i=1,3 and take the difference. This gives



displaystylefracN(r2)14=leftlfloorr2rightrfloorleftlfloorfracr23rightrfloor+leftlfloorfracr25rightrfloormp...displaystylefracN(r2)14=leftlfloorr2rightrfloorleftlfloorfracr23rightrfloor+leftlfloorfracr25rightrfloormp...



and now the desired result follows by dividing by r2r2 and taking the limit.



Question: Does a similar proof exist of the formula displaystylefracpi26=1+frac122+frac132+...displaystylefracpi26=1+frac122+frac132+...?



By "similar" I mean one first establishes a finitary result with a clear number-theoretic or combinatorial meaning and then takes a limit.

No comments:

Post a Comment