Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-dwq4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T04:25:20.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

ON RAMANUJAN'S INEQUALITIES FOR ${\exp}(\hbox{\itshape k})$

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2004

HORST ALZER
Affiliation:
Morsbacher Straße 10, D-51545 Waldbröl, Germanyalzerhorst@freenet.de
Get access

Abstract

Ramanujan claimed in his first letter to Hardy (16 January 1913) that $$\frac{1}{2}e^k-\sum_{\nu=0}^{k-1}\frac{k^{\nu}}{\nu !}=\frac{k^k}{k!}\bigg(\frac{1}{3}+\frac{4}{135(k+\theta(k))}\bigg) \qquad{(k=1,2,{\ldots})},$$ where $\theta(k)$ lies between $2/21$ and $8/45$. This conjecture was proved in 1995 by Flajolet et al. The paper establishes the following refinement. $$\frac{1}{2}e^k-\sum_{\nu=0}^{k-1}\frac{k^{\nu}}{\nu !}=\frac{k^k}{k!} \bigg(\frac{1}{3}+\frac{4}{135 k}-\frac{8}{2835(k+\theta^*(k))^2}\bigg) \qquad{(k=1,2,{\ldots})},$$ where $$-\frac{1}{3}<\theta^*(k)\leq -1+\frac{4}{\sqrt{21(368-135e)}}=-0.140\,74{\ldots}\,.$$ Both bounds for $\theta^*(k)$ are sharp.

Type
Notes and Papers
Copyright
The London Mathematical Society 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)