Subject: Calculus
Bernoulli Numbers
Suppose we are given with a power series of the first n natural number for positive integer exponents r which is expressed as
For small values of r expressions for \sigma_r (n) , the values are well known. For example if we have the first three values of r, we’ll have
Let us sum up the r^{th} powers up to n – 1. We then have
Taking the values of S_r (n) for different values of r, we have
and so on....
From this small list, we can observe some interesting properties of the polynomial S_r (n).
- The leading term of S_r (n) is \frac{n^{r+1}}{r+1}. The next term is -\frac{n^r}{2}.
- S_r (0) = S_r (1) = 0.
- S_r (-n) = (-1)^{r+1} S_r (n+1) .
- S_r (n) has factors n, (n-1). When r is even, (2n-1) is also a factor.
From the discussion of Taylor series, from the form
We can rewrite this into
where \mathbf{D} is the differential operator. If we subtract S_r (n+1) and S_r (n), we get n^r. We can now write this as
where \mathbf{D} here means differentiation with respect to n. Thus,
where C is the constant of integration to be determined from S_r (0)= 0. Next we expand the term \frac{\mathbf{D}}{e^{\mathbf{D}}-1} into its power series expansion.
Definition
Here, B_k, k=0, 1 , 2,… are known as Bernoulli’s numbers. We know that \frac{z}{e^z-1} converges when z=\pm 2\pi ni, n=1,2,3,… or when |z|=2\pi. Next, let us examine the properties of Bernoulli’s numbers.
If we let z approaches zero, from the definition, we see that
and
which is an even function of z. Thus, in its power expansion about z = 0 the odd order coefficients is also zero. So, B_1+1/2, B_3, B_5, B_7,… are zero. This means that
where k = 1, 2, 3, ....
To solve for the Bernoulli numbers, we use a recurrence formula as follows
On the left hand side there is the product of two power series. The first is from the definition of the Bernoulli numbers, and the second is the power series for the exponential function. We recall the rule for multiplying two power series. If
then
Applying this rule to
We'll have
We then compare the coefficients of z^n on both sides for n>1 to obtain
Since B_0 and B_1 are already known, we only care about n>1. Thus
This relation can be symbolically written as
where (1+B)_n is to be expanded just like a binomial expansion except that instead of taking superscripts to get powers such as B_k we take subscripts to get the various Bernoulli numbers B_k. Actually since the B_n term cancels from both sides, we get a relation involving Bernoulli numbers until B_{n-1}. So
actually gives
In this formula nearly half the terms on the right hand side do not contribute anything since B_3 = B_5 = B_7 = … = 0. Using the above equation we can compute B_2 and B_4 as follows:
B_2 = -\frac{1}{3}(B_0 +3B_1) = -\frac{1}{3}(1+3(-\frac{1}{2})) = \frac{1}{6}$
Other values are shown in the table below
n | Bernoulli's Number |
---|---|
2 | 1/6 |
4 | -1/30 |
6 | 1/42 |
8 | -1/30 |
10 | 5/66 |
12 | -691/2730 |
14 | 7/6 |
16 | -3617/510 |
18 | 43867/798 |
20 | -174611/330 |
22 | 854513/138 |
24 | -236364091/2730 |
26 | 8553103/6 |
28 | -23749461029/870 |
30 | 8615841276005/14322 |
32 | -7709321041217/510 |
34 | 2577687858367/6 |
36 - | 26315271553053477373/1919190 |
38 | 38 2929993913841559/6 |
40 | -261082718496449122051/13530 |
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