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In mathematics, the gamma function (represented by Γ, capital Greek letter gamma) is the most common extension of the factorial function to complex numbers.Derived by Daniel Bernoulli, the gamma function () is defined for all complex numbers except non-positive integers, and for every positive integer =, () = ()!.
The roots of the digamma function are the saddle points of the complex-valued gamma function. Thus they lie all on the real axis. The only one on the positive real axis is the unique minimum of the real-valued gamma function on R + at x 0 = 1.461 632 144 968 362 341 26.... All others occur single between the poles on the negative axis:
Thus the -gamma function can be considered as an extension of the -factorial function to the real numbers. The relation to the ordinary gamma function is made explicit in the limit = (). There is a simple proof of this limit by Gosper.
The falling factorial can be extended to real values of using the gamma function provided and + are real numbers that are not negative integers: = (+) (+) , and so can the rising factorial: = (+) . Calculus
One property of the gamma function, distinguishing it from other continuous interpolations of the factorials, is given by the Bohr–Mollerup theorem, which states that the gamma function (offset by one) is the only log-convex function on the positive real numbers that interpolates the factorials and obeys the same functional equation.
Using the same approach, in 2013, M. Ram Murty and A. Zaytseva showed that the generalized Euler constants have the same property, [3] [44] [45] where the generalized Euler constant are defined as = (= = ()), where is a fixed list of prime numbers, () = if at least one of the primes in is a prime factor of , and ...
Díaz and Pariguan use these definitions to demonstrate a number of properties of the hypergeometric function. Although Díaz and Pariguan restrict these symbols to k > 0, the Pochhammer k-symbol as they define it is well-defined for all real k, and for negative k gives the falling factorial, while for k = 0 it reduces to the power x n.
Like the log-gamma function, the polygamma functions can be generalized from the domain uniquely to positive real numbers only due to their recurrence relation and one given function-value, say ψ (m) (1), except in the case m = 0 where the additional condition of strict monotonicity on + is still needed.