School of Mathematics Colloquium
Cornelius Lanczos' mysterious formula for the Gamma function
by Prof. W. Casselman (University of British Columbia, Canada)
Thursday, March 7, 2013
from
to
(Asia/Kolkata)
at Colaba Campus ( AG-66 )
at Colaba Campus ( AG-66 )
Description |
In 1964, Cornelius Lanczos proposed entirely without proof a new kind of asymptotic expansion of the Gamma function, very different from tirling's formula and much more mysterious. In his 2004 UBC thesis a former student of mine, Glen Pugh, derived Lanczos' formula and uncovered some of the most peculiar phenomena I have ever seen in the behaviour of asymptotic expansions. I am not aware that anyone has explained rigourously what is going on. |