Friday, 3 June 2016

sequences and series - Calculate: $sum_{k=1}^infty frac{1}{k}frac{x^k}{k!}$



Find the following sum:



$$\sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{1}{k}\frac{x^k}{k!}$$



where $x$ is a real number. This is a power series in $x$. In particular, I'm interested in the case $x>0$.



This is very similar to Calculate: $\sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{1}{k^2}\frac{x^k}{k!}$, the only difference being the $k$ isn't squared in the denominator.




Disclaimer: This is not a homework exercise, I do not know if a closed form solution exists. If it doesn't, exist, then an approximation in terms of well-known functions (not the all-mighty general hypergeometric $_pF_q$, something simpler please) would be desired.


Answer



we have
$$e^{x}-1=\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac {x^{k}}{k!}}$$
$$\frac{e^{x}-1}{x}=\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac {x^{k-1}}{k!}}$$



integrate both sides from $x=0$ to $x$
$$\int_{0}^{x}(\frac{e^{x}-1}{x})dx=\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac {x^{k}}{kk!}}$$




so
$$\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac {x^{k}}{kk!}}=\int_{0}^{x}(\frac{e^{x}-1}{x})dx$$
$$\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac {x^{k}}{kk!}}=Ei(x)-\log(x)-\gamma$$


No comments:

Post a Comment

real analysis - How to find $lim_{hrightarrow 0}frac{sin(ha)}{h}$

How to find $\lim_{h\rightarrow 0}\frac{\sin(ha)}{h}$ without lhopital rule? I know when I use lhopital I easy get $$ \lim_{h\rightarrow 0}...