Gamma function 1

Gamma function
For the gamma function of ordinals, see Veblen function.
In mathematics, the gamma function
(represented by the capital Greek
letter Γ) is an extension of the factorial
function, with its argument shifted
down by 1, to real and complex
numbers. That is, if n is a positive
integer:

The gamma function is defined for all

complex numbers except the negative
integers and zero. For complex
numbers with a positive real part, it is
defined via a convergent improper
integral:

The gamma function along part of the real axis

This integral function is extended by
analytic continuation to all complex numbers except the non-positive integers (where the function has simple poles),
yielding the meromorphic function we call the gamma function.
The gamma function is a component in various probability-distribution functions, and as such it is applicable in the
fields of probability and statistics, as well as combinatorics.

Motivation
The gamma function can be seen as a solution to the
following interpolation problem:
"Find a smooth curve that connects the
points (x, y) given by y = (x − 1)! at the positive
integer values for x."
A plot of the first few factorials makes clear that such a
curve can be drawn, but it would be preferable to have
a formula that precisely describes the curve, in which
the number of operations does not depend on the size
of x. The simple formula for the factorial, n! = 1 × 2 ×
… × n, cannot be used directly for fractional values of x
since it is only valid when x is a natural number (i.e., a It is easy graphically to interpolate the factorial function to
positive integer). There are, relatively speaking, no non-integer values, but is there a formula that describes the resulting
such simple solutions for factorials; any combination of curve?

sums, products, powers, exponential functions, or

logarithms with a fixed number of terms will not suffice to express x!. Stirling's approximation is asymptotically
equal to the factorial function for large values of x. It is possible to find a general formula for factorials using tools
such as integrals and limits from calculus. A good solution to this is the gamma function.
Gamma function 2

There are infinitely many continuous extensions of the factorial to non-integers: infinitely many curves can be drawn
through any set of isolated points. The gamma function is the most useful solution in practice, being analytic (except
at the non-positive integers), and it can be characterized in several ways. However, it is not the only analytic function
which extends the factorial, as adding to it any analytic function which is zero on the positive integers will give
another function with that property.
A more restrictive property than satisfying the above interpolation is to satisfy the recurrence relation defining a
slightly translated version of the factorial function,

for x equal to any positive real number. The Bohr–Mollerup theorem proves that these properties, together with the
assumption that f be logarithmically convex (or "superconvex"[1]), uniquely determine f for positive, real inputs.
From there, the gamma function can be extended to all real and complex values (except the negative integers and
zero) by using the unique analytic continuation of f.

Definition

Main definition
The notation Γ(t) is due to Legendre. If the real part of the complex
number t is positive (Re(t) > 0), then the integral

converges absolutely, and is known as the Euler integral of the

second kind (the Euler integral of the first kind defines the Beta
function). Using integration by parts, we see that the gamma function
satisfies the functional equation:

Combining this with Γ(1) = 1, we get:

The extended version of the gamma function in

for all positive integers n. the complex plane

The identity Γ(t) = Γ(t+1)/t can be used (or, yielding the same result,

analytic continuation can be used) to extend the integral formulation for Γ(t) to a meromorphic function defined for
all complex numbers t, except t = −n for integers n ≥ 0, where the function has simple poles with residue (−1)n/n!.
It is this extended version that is commonly referred to as the gamma function.

Alternative definitions
The following infinite product definitions for the gamma function, due to Euler and Weierstrass respectively, are
valid for all complex numbers t, except the non-positive integers:

where γ ≈ 0.577216... is the Euler–Mascheroni constant. It is straightforward to show that the Euler definition
satisfies the functional equation (1) above.
Gamma function 3

A somewhat curious parametrization of the gamma function is given in terms of generalized Laguerre polynomials,

which converges for Re(t) < 1/2.

The gamma function in the complex plane

The behavior of Γ(t) for an increasing positive variable is simple: it
grows quickly — faster than an exponential function. Asymptotically
as t → ∞, the magnitude of the gamma function is given by Stirling's
formula

where the symbol ~ means that the quotient of both sides converges to
1.
The behavior for nonpositive t is more intricate. Euler's integral does
The absolute value of the gamma function on the
not converge for t ≤ 0, but the function it defines in the positive
complex plane.
complex half-plane has a unique analytic continuation to the negative
half-plane. One way to find that analytic continuation is to use Euler's
integral for positive arguments and extend the domain to negative numbers by repeated application of the recurrence
formula,

choosing n such that t + n is positive. The product in the denominator is zero when t equals any of the integers
0, −1, −2,... . Thus, the gamma function must be undefined at those points; it is a meromorphic function with simple
poles at the nonpositive integers. The residues of the function at those points are:

The gamma function is nonzero everywhere along the real line, although it comes arbitrarily close to zero as t → −∞.
There is in fact no complex number t for which Γ(t) = 0, and hence the reciprocal gamma function 1/Γ is an entire
function, with zeros at t = 0, −1, −2, ... The gamma function has a local minimum at where it
attains the value . The gamma function must alternate sign between the poles because the
product in the forward recurrence contains an odd number of negative factors if the number of poles between t and
t+n is odd, and an even number if the number of poles is even.
Gamma function 4

Properties

General
Other important functional equations for the gamma function are Euler's reflection formula

which implies

and the duplication formula

The duplication formula is a special case of the multiplication theorem

A simple but useful property, which can be seen from the limit definition, is:

Perhaps the best-known value of the gamma function at a non-integer argument is

which can be found by setting z = 1/2 in the reflection or duplication formulas, by using the relation to the beta
function given below with x = y = 1/2, or simply by making the substitution u = √t in the integral definition of the
gamma function, resulting in a Gaussian integral. In general, for non-negative integer values of n we have:

where n!! denotes the double factorial and, when n = 0, n!! = 1. See Particular values of the gamma function for
calculated values.
It might be tempting to generalize the result that Γ(1/2) = √π by looking for a formula for other individual values
Γ(r) where r is rational. However, these numbers are not known to be expressible by themselves in terms of
elementary functions. It has been proved that Γ(n+r) is a transcendental number and algebraically independent of π
for any integer n and each of the fractions r = 1/6, 1/4, 1/3, 2/3, 3/4, and 5/6.[2] In general, when computing values of
the gamma function, we must settle for numerical approximations.
Another useful limit for asymptotic approximations is:

The derivatives of the gamma function are described in terms of the polygamma function. For example:

For positive integer m the derivative of gamma function can be calculated as follows (here γ is the Euler–Mascheroni
constant):

The n-th derivative of the gamma function is:

Gamma function 5

[3]

The gamma function has simple poles at z = −n = 0, −1, −2, −3, … The residue there is

Moreover, the gamma function has the following Laurent expansion in 1

valid for |z − 1| < 1. In particular

The Bohr–Mollerup theorem states that among all functions extending the factorial functions to the positive real
numbers, only the gamma function is log-convex, that is, its natural logarithm is convex on the positive real axis.
In a certain sense, the log(Γ)-function is the more natural form; it makes some intrinsic attributes of the function
clearer. A striking example is the Taylor series of log(Γ) in 1:

with ζ(k) denoting the Riemann zeta function at k.

Fourier series expansion

The logarithm of the gamma function ("GammaLn") has the following Fourier series expansion

which has been long-time attributed to Ernst Kummer who derived it in 1847.[4][5] However, it was comparatively
recently that it was discovered by Iaroslav Blagouchine that this series was first derived by Carl Johan Malmsten in
1842.[6]
An approximation for GammaLn is given by Numerical Recipes in C (First Edition):
GammaLn(x) = ln(2.506628274631 * s) - z
where:
z = x + 4.5 - (x - 0.5) * ln(x + 4.5);
s = 1.00000000019001 + 76.1800917294715/z - 86.5053203294168/(z + 1) + 24.0140982408309/(z +
2) - 1.23173957245016/(z + 3) + 1.20865097386618E-03/(z + 4) - 5.395239384953E-06/(z + 5).

Raabe's formula
In 1840 Raabe proved that

In particular, if then
Gamma function 6

Pi function
An alternative notation which was originally introduced by Gauss and which was sometimes used is the Pi function,
which in terms of the gamma function is

so that

for every non-negative integer n.

Using the Pi function the reflection formula takes on the form

where sinc is the normalized sinc function, while the multiplication theorem takes on the form

We also sometimes find

which is an entire function, defined for every complex number, just like the reciprocal gamma function. That π(z) is
entire entails it has no poles, so Π(z), like Γ(z), has no zeros.
Somewhat interestingly, the Volume of an n-ellipsoid with radii can be expressed as

Relation to other functions

• In the first integral above, which defines the gamma function, the limits of integration are fixed. The upper and
lower incomplete gamma functions are the functions obtained by allowing the lower or upper (respectively) limit
of integration to vary.
• The gamma function is related to the Beta function by the formula

• The logarithmic derivative of the gamma function is called the digamma function; higher derivatives are the
polygamma functions.
• The analog of the gamma function over a finite field or a finite ring is the Gaussian sums, a type of exponential
sum.
• The reciprocal gamma function is an entire function and has been studied as a specific topic.
• The gamma function also shows up in an important relation with the Riemann zeta function, ζ(z).

And also in the following elegant formula:

which is valid only for Re(z) > 1.

The logarithm of the gamma function satisfies the following formula due to Lerch:
Gamma function 7

where ζH is the Hurwitz zeta function, ζ is the Riemann zeta function and the prime (') denotes differentiation
in the first variable.
• The gamma function is intimately related to the stretched exponential function. For instance, the moments of that
function are

Particular values
Main article: Particular values of the gamma function
Some particular values of the gamma function are:

Approximations
Complex values of the gamma function can be computed numerically with arbitrary precision using Stirling's
approximation or the Lanczos approximation.
The gamma function can be computed to fixed precision for Re(z) ∈ [1, 2] by applying integration by parts to Euler's
integral. For any positive number x the gamma function can be written

When Re(z) ∈ [1, 2] and x ≥ 1, the absolute value of the last integral is smaller than (x + 1) e−x. By choosing a large
enough x, this last expression can be made smaller than 2−N for any desired value N. Thus, the gamma function can
be evaluated to N bits of precision with the above series.
The only fast algorithm for calculation of the Euler gamma function for any algebraic argument (including rational)
was constructed by E.A. Karatsuba,[7][8][9]
For arguments that are integer multiples of 1/24 the gamma function can also be evaluated quickly using
arithmetic-geometric mean iterations (see particular values of the gamma function).
Because the Gamma and factorial functions grow so rapidly for moderately large arguments, many computing
environments include a function that returns the natural logarithm of the gamma function (often given the name
lngamma in programming environments or gammaln in spreadsheets); this grows much more slowly, and for
Gamma function 8

combinatorial calculations allows adding and subtracting logs instead of multiplying and dividing very large values.
The digamma function, which is the derivative of this function, is also commonly seen. In the context of technical
and physical applications, e.g. with wave propagation, the functional equation

is often used since it allows one to determine function values in one strip of width 1 in z from the neighbouring strip.
In particular, starting with a good approximation for a z with large real part one may go step by step down to the
desired z. Following an indication of Carl Friedrich Gauss, Rocktaeschel (1922) proposed for ln(Γ(z)) an
approximation for large Re(z):

This can be used to accurately approximate ln(Γ(z)) for z with a smaller Re(z) via (P.E.Böhmer, 1939)

A more accurate approximation can be obtained by using more terms from the asymptotic expansions of ln(Γ(z)) and
Γ(z), which are based on Stirling's approximation.

In a more "natural" presentation:

The coefficients of the terms with k > 1 of z−k+1 in the last expansion are simply

where the Bk are the Bernoulli numbers.

Applications
Opening a random page in an advanced table of formulas, one may be as likely to spot the gamma function as a
trigonometric function. One author describes the gamma function as "Arguably, the most common special function,
or the least 'special' of them. The other transcendental functions listed below are called 'special' because you could
conceivably avoid some of them by staying away from many specialized mathematical topics. On the other hand, the
gamma function y = Γ(x) is most difficult to avoid."[10]

Integration problems
The gamma function finds application in such diverse areas as quantum physics, astrophysics and fluid dynamics.[11]
The gamma distribution, which is formulated in terms of the gamma function, is used in statistics to model a wide
range of processes; for example, the time between occurrences of earthquakes.[12]
The primary reason for the gamma function's usefulness in such contexts is the prevalence of expressions of the type
which describe processes that decay exponentially in time or space. Integrals of such expressions can
occasionally be solved in terms of the gamma function when no elementary solution exists. For example, if f is a
power function and g is a linear function, a simple change of variables gives the evaluation

The fact that the integration is performed along the entire positive real line might signify that the gamma function
describes the cumulation of a time-dependent process that continues indefinitely, or the value might be the total of a
distribution in an infinite space.
Gamma function 9

It is of course frequently useful to take limits of integration other than 0 and ∞ to describe the cumulation of a finite
process, in which case the ordinary gamma function is no longer a solution; the solution is then called an incomplete
gamma function. (The ordinary gamma function, obtained by integrating across the entire positive real line, is
sometimes called the complete gamma function for contrast).
An important category of exponentially decaying functions is that of Gaussian functions

and integrals thereof, such as the error function. There are many interrelations between these functions and the
gamma function; notably, the square root of π we obtained by evaluating Γ(1/2) is the "same" as that found in the
normalizing factor of the error function and the normal distribution.
The integrals we have discussed so far involve transcendental functions, but the gamma function also arises from
integrals of purely algebraic functions. In particular, the arc lengths of ellipses and of the lemniscate, which are
curves defined by algebraic equations, are given by elliptic integrals that in special cases can be evaluated in terms of
the gamma function. The gamma function can also be used to calculate "volume" and "area" of n-dimensional
hyperspheres.
Another important special case is that of the beta function

Calculating products
The gamma function's ability to generalize factorial products immediately leads to applications in many areas of
mathematics; in combinatorics, and by extension in areas such as probability theory and the calculation of power
series. Many expressions involving products of successive integers can be written as some combination of factorials,
the most important example perhaps being that of the binomial coefficient

The example of binomial coefficients motivates why the properties of the gamma function when extended to
negative numbers are natural. A binomial coefficient gives the number of ways to choose k elements from a set of n
elements; if k > n, there are of course no ways. If k > n, (n−k)! is the factorial of a negative integer and hence infinite
if we use the gamma function definition of factorials — dividing by infinity gives the expected value of 0.
We can replace the factorial by a gamma function to extend any such formula to the complex numbers. Generally,
this works for any product wherein each factor is a rational function of the index variable, by factoring the rational
function into linear expressions. If P and Q are monic polynomials of degree m and n with respective roots
and , we have

If we have a way to calculate the gamma function numerically, it is a breeze to calculate numerical values of such
products. The number of gamma functions in the right-hand side depends only on the degree of the polynomials, so it
does not matter whether b−a equals 5 or 105. Moreover, due to the poles of the gamma function, the equation also
holds (in the sense of taking limits) when the left-hand product contain zeros or poles.
By taking limits, certain rational products with infinitely many factors can be evaluated in terms of the gamma
function as well. Due to the Weierstrass factorization theorem, analytic functions can be written as infinite products,
and these can sometimes be represented as finite products or quotients of the gamma function. We have already seen
one striking example: the reflection formula essentially represents the sine function as the product of two gamma
functions. Starting from this formula, the exponential function as well as all the trigonometric and hyperbolic
Gamma function 10

functions can be expressed in terms of the gamma function.

More functions yet, including the hypergeometric function and special cases thereof, can be represented by means of
complex contour integrals of products and quotients of the gamma function, called Mellin-Barnes integrals.

Analytic number theory

An elegant and deep application of the gamma function is in the study of the Riemann zeta function. A fundamental
property of the Riemann zeta function is its functional equation:

Among other things, this provides an explicit form for the analytic continuation of the zeta function to a
meromorphic function in the complex plane and leads to an immediate proof that the zeta function has infinitely
many so-called "trivial" zeros on the real line. Borwein et al. call this formula "one of the most beautiful findings in
mathematics". Another champion for that title might be

Both formulas were derived by Bernhard Riemann in his seminal 1859 paper "Über die Anzahl der Primzahlen unter
einer gegebenen Grösse" ("On the Number of Prime Numbers less than a Given Quantity"), one of the milestones in
the development of analytic number theory — the branch of mathematics that studies prime numbers using the tools
of mathematical analysis. Factorial numbers, considered as discrete objects, are an important concept in classical
number theory because they contain many prime factors, but Riemann found a use for their continuous extension that
arguably turned out to be even more important.

History
The gamma function has caught the interest of some of the most prominent mathematicians of all time. Its history,
notably documented by Philip J. Davis in an article that won him the 1963 Chauvenet Prize, reflects many of the
major developments within mathematics since the 18th century. In the words of Davis, "each generation has found
something of interest to say about the gamma function. Perhaps the next generation will also."[13]

18th century: Euler and Stirling

The problem of extending the factorial to non-integer arguments was
apparently first considered by Daniel Bernoulli and Christian Goldbach
in the 1720s, and was solved at the end of the same decade by
Leonhard Euler. Euler gave two different definitions: the first was not
his integral but an infinite product,

Daniel Bernoulli's letter to Goldbach, 1729-10-06

of which he informed Goldbach in a letter dated October 13, 1729. He
wrote to Goldbach again on January 8, 1730, to announce his discovery
of the integral representation

which is valid for n > 0. By the change of variables t = −ln s, this becomes the familiar Euler integral. Euler
published his results in the paper "De progressionibus transcendentibus seu quarum termini generales algebraice dari
nequeunt" ("On transcendental progressions, that is, those whose general terms cannot be given algebraically"),
Gamma function 11

submitted to the St. Petersburg Academy on November 28, 1729.[14] Euler further discovered some of the gamma
function's important functional properties, including the reflection formula.
James Stirling, a contemporary of Euler, also attempted to find a continuous expression for the factorial and came up
with what is now known as Stirling's formula. Although Stirling's formula gives a good estimate of n!, also for
non-integers, it does not provide the exact value. Extensions of his formula that correct the error were given by
Stirling himself and by Jacques Philippe Marie Binet.

19th century: Gauss, Weierstrass and Legendre

Carl Friedrich Gauss rewrote Euler's product as

and used this formula to discover new properties of the

gamma function. Although Euler was a pioneer in the
theory of complex variables, he does not appear to have
considered the factorial of a complex number, as instead
Gauss first did. Gauss also proved the multiplication
theorem of the gamma function and investigated the
connection between the gamma function and elliptic
integrals.

Karl Weierstrass further established the role of the gamma

function in complex analysis, starting from yet another
product representation,

where γ is the Euler–Mascheroni constant. Weierstrass

originally wrote his product as one for 1/Γ, in which case
it is taken over the function's zeros rather than its poles.
Inspired by this result, he proved what is known as the
Weierstrass factorization theorem—that any entire
function can be written as a product over its zeros in the The first page of Euler's paper
complex plane; a generalization of the fundamental
theorem of algebra.

The name gamma function and the symbol Γ were introduced by Adrien-Marie Legendre around 1811; Legendre
also rewrote Euler's integral definition in its modern form. Although the symbol is an upper-case Greek gamma,
there is no accepted standard for whether the function name should be written "gamma function" or "Gamma
function" (some authors simply write "Γ-function"). The alternative "Pi function" notation Π(z) = z! due to Gauss is
sometimes encountered in older literature, but Legendre's notation is dominant in modern works.
It is justified to ask why we distinguish between the "ordinary factorial" and the gamma function by using distinct
symbols, and particularly why the gamma function should be normalized to Γ(n+1) = n! instead of simply using
"Γ(n) = n!". Consider that the notation for exponents, xn, has been generalized from integers to complex numbers xz
without any change. Legendre's motivation for the normalization does not appear to be known, and has been
criticized as cumbersome by some (the 20th-century mathematician Cornelius Lanczos, for example, called it "void
of any rationality" and would instead use z!).[15] Legendre's normalization does simplify a few formulas, but
complicates most others. From a modern point of view, the Legendre normalization of the Gamma function is the
Gamma function 12

integral of the additive character e−x against the multiplicative character xz with respect to the Haar measure dx/x on
the Lie group R+. Thus this normalization makes it clearer that the Gamma function is a continuous analogue of a
Gauss sum.

19th-20th centuries: characterizing the gamma function

It is somewhat problematic that a large number of definitions have been given for the gamma function. Although
they describe the same function, it is not entirely straightforward to prove the equivalence. Stirling never proved that
his extended formula corresponds exactly to Euler's gamma function; a proof was first given by Charles Hermite in
1900. Instead of finding a specialized proof for each formula, it would be desirable to have a general method of
identifying the gamma function.
One way to prove would be to find a differential equation that characterizes the gamma function. Most special
functions in applied mathematics arise as solutions to differential equations, whose solutions are unique. However,
the gamma function does not appear to satisfy any simple differential equation. Otto Hölder proved in 1887 that the
gamma function at least does not satisfy any algebraic differential equation by showing that a solution to such an
equation could not satisfy the gamma function's recurrence formula. This result is known as Hölder's theorem.
A definite and generally applicable characterization of the gamma function was not given until 1922. Harald Bohr
and Johannes Mollerup then proved what is known as the Bohr–Mollerup theorem: that the gamma function is the
unique solution to the factorial recurrence relation that is positive and logarithmically convex for positive z and
whose value at 1 is 1 (a function is logarithmically convex if its logarithm is convex).
The Bohr–Mollerup theorem is useful because it is relatively easy to prove logarithmic convexity for any of the
different formulas used to define the gamma function. Taking things further, instead of defining the gamma function
by any particular formula, we can choose the conditions of the Bohr–Mollerup theorem as the definition, and then
pick any formula we like that satisfies the conditions as a starting point for studying the gamma function. This
approach was used by the Bourbaki group.

Reference tables and software

Although the gamma function can be calculated virtually as easily as any mathematically simpler function with a
modern computer—even with a programmable pocket calculator—this was of course not always the case. Until the
mid-20th century, mathematicians relied on hand-made tables; in the case of the gamma function, notably a table
computed by Gauss in 1813 and one computed by Legendre in 1825.
Tables of complex values of the gamma
function, as well as hand-drawn graphs,
were given in Tables of Higher Functions
by Jahnke and Emde, first published in
Germany in 1909. According to Michael
Berry, "the publication in J&E of a
three-dimensional graph showing the poles
of the gamma function in the complex plane
acquired an almost iconic status."[16]

There was in fact little practical need for

anything but real values of the gamma
function until the 1930s, when applications
A hand-drawn graph of the absolute value of the complex gamma function, from
for the complex gamma function were
Tables of Higher Functions by Jahnke and Emde.
discovered in theoretical physics. As
Gamma function 13

electronic computers became available for the production of tables in the 1950s, several extensive tables for the
complex gamma function were published to meet the demand, including a table accurate to 12 decimal places from
the U.S. National Bureau of Standards.
Abramowitz and Stegun became the standard reference for this and many other special functions after its publication
in 1964.
Double-precision floating-point implementations of the gamma function and its logarithm are now available in most
scientific computing software and special functions libraries, for example Matlab, GNU Octave, and the GNU
Scientific Library. The gamma function was also added to the C standard library (math.h). Arbitrary-precision
implementations are available in most computer algebra systems, such as Mathematica and Maple. PARI/GP, MPFR
and MPFUN contain free arbitrary-precision implementations.

Notes
[1] Kingman, J.F.C. 1961. A convexity property of positive matrices. Quart. J. Math. Oxford (2) 12,283-284.
[2] Waldschmidt, M. (2006). " Transcendence of Periods: The State of the Art (http:/ / www. math. jussieu. fr/ ~miw/ articles/ pdf/
TranscendencePeriods. pdf)". Pure and Applied Mathematics Quarterly, Volume 2, Number 2, 435—463 (PDF copy published by the author)
[3] This can be derived by differentiating the integral form of the gamma function with respect to x, and using the technique of differentiation
under the integral sign.
[4] Harry Bateman and Arthur Erdélyi Higher Transcendental Functions [in 3 volumes]. Mc Graw-Hill Book Company, 1955.
[5] H.M. Srivastava and J. Choi Series Associated with the Zeta and Related Functions. Kluwer Academic Publishers. The Netherlands, 2001
[6] Iaroslav V. Blagouchine Rediscovery of Malmsten's integrals, their evaluation by contour integration methods and some related results. The
Ramanujan Journal, 2013. (http:/ / link. springer. com/ article/ 10. 1007/ s11139-013-9528-5)
[7] E.A. Karatsuba, Fast evaluation of transcendental functions. Probl. Inf. Transm. Vol.27, No.4, pp.339-360 (1991).
[8] E.A. Karatsuba, On a new method for fast evaluation of transcendental functions. Russ. Math. Surv. Vol.46, No.2, pp.246-247 (1991).
[9] E.A. Karatsuba " Fast Algorithms and the FEE Method (http:/ / www. ccas. ru/ personal/ karatsuba/ algen. htm)".
[10] Michon, G. P. " Trigonometry and Basic Functions (http:/ / home. att. net/ ~numericana/ answer/ functions. htm)". Numericana. Retrieved
May 5, 2007.
[11] Chaudry, M. A. & Zubair, S. M. (2001). On A Class of Incomplete Gamma Functions with Applications. p. 37
[12] Rice, J. A. (1995). Mathematical Statistics and Data Analysis (Second Edition). p. 52–53
[13] Davis, P. J. (1959). "Leonhard Euler's Integral: A Historical Profile of the Gamma Function", The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 66,
No. 10 (Dec., 1959), pp. 849–869 (http:/ / mathdl. maa. org/ mathDL/ 22/ ?pa=content& sa=viewDocument& nodeId=3104)
[14] Euler's paper was published in Commentarii academiae scientiarum Petropolitanae 5, 1738, 36–57. See E19 -- De progressionibus
transcendentibus seu quarum termini generales algebraice dari nequeunt (http:/ / math. dartmouth. edu/ ~euler/ pages/ E019. html), from The
Euler Archive, which includes a scanned copy of the original article. An English translation (http:/ / home. sandiego. edu/ ~langton/ eg. pdf)
by S. Langton is also available.
[15] Lanczos, C. (1964). "A precision approximation of the gamma function." J. SIAM Numer. Anal. Ser. B, Vol. 1.
[16] Berry, M. " Why are special functions special? (http:/ / scitation. aip. org/ journals/ doc/ PHTOAD-ft/ vol_54/ iss_4/ 11_1.
shtml?bypassSSO=1)". Physics Today, April 2001

References
• Milton Abramowitz and Irene A. Stegun, eds. Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and
Mathematical Tables. New York: Dover, 1972. (See Chapter 6) (http://www.math.sfu.ca/~cbm/aands/
page_253.htm)
• G. E. Andrews, R. Askey, R. Roy, Special Functions, Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN
978-0-521-78988-2. Chapter one, covering the gamma and beta functions, is highly readable and definitive.
• Emil Artin, "The Gamma Function", in Rosen, Michael (ed.) Exposition by Emil Artin: a selection; History of
Mathematics 30. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (2006).
• Askey, R. A.; Roy, R. (2010), "Gamma function" (http://dlmf.nist.gov/5), in Olver, Frank W. J.; Lozier, Daniel
M.; Boisvert, Ronald F.; Clark, Charles W., NIST Handbook of Mathematical Functions, Cambridge University
Press, ISBN 978-0521192255, MR  2723248 (http://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=2723248)
• Birkhoff, George D. (1913). "Note on the gamma function". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 20 (1): 1–10. doi:
10.1090/s0002-9904-1913-02429-7 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/s0002-9904-1913-02429-7). MR  1559418
Gamma function 14

(http://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1559418).
• P. E. Böhmer, ´´Differenzengleichungen und bestimmte Integrale´´, Köhler Verlag, Leipzig, 1939.
• James D. Bonnar, The Gamma Function. CreateSpace Publishing, Seattle, 2010. ISBN 978-1463694296. A
thorough and systematic book devoted entirely to the subject of the gamma function.
• Philip J. Davis, "Leonhard Euler's Integral: A Historical Profile of the Gamma Function," American Mathematical
Monthly 66, 849-869 (1959)
• Press, WH; Teukolsky, SA; Vetterling, WT; Flannery, BP (2007), "Section 6.1. Gamma Function" (http://apps.
nrbook.com/empanel/index.html?pg=256), Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing (3rd ed.), New
York: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-88068-8
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Dresden, Dresden, 1922.
• Nico M. Temme, "Special Functions: An Introduction to the Classical Functions of Mathematical Physics", John
Wiley & Sons, New York, ISBN 0-471-11313-1,1996.
• E. T. Whittaker and G. N. Watson, A Course of Modern Analysis. Cambridge University Press (1927; reprinted
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External links
• NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions:Gamma function (http://dlmf.nist.gov/5)
• Pascal Sebah and Xavier Gourdon. Introduction to the Gamma Function. In PostScript (http://numbers.
computation.free.fr/Constants/Miscellaneous/gammaFunction.ps) and HTML (http://numbers.computation.
free.fr/Constants/Miscellaneous/gammaFunction.html) formats.
• C++ reference for std::tgamma (http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/numeric/math/tgamma)
• Examples of problems involving the gamma function can be found at Exampleproblems.com (http://www.
exampleproblems.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special_Functions).
• Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001), "Gamma function" (http://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=p/
g043310), Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer, ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4
• Wolfram gamma function evaluator (arbitrary precision) (http://functions.wolfram.com/webMathematica/
FunctionEvaluation.jsp?name=Gamma)
• Gamma (http://functions.wolfram.com/GammaBetaErf/Gamma/) at the Wolfram Functions Site
• Volume of n-Spheres and the Gamma Function (http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath163/kmath163.htm)
at MathPages
• Weisstein, Eric W., "Gamma Function" (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GammaFunction.html), MathWorld.
• "Selected Transformations, Identities, and Special Values for the Gamma Function" (http://www.docstoc.com/
docs/5836783/Selected-Transformations-Identities--and-Special-Values--for-the-Gamma-Function,)
• This article incorporates material from the Citizendium article "Gamma function", which is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License but not under the GFDL.
Article Sources and Contributors 15

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Gamma function  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=612221968  Contributors: 1exec1, 209.218.246.xxx, 65.197.2.xxx, A. Pichler, Adriaan Joubert, Adselsum,
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Image:Gamma plot.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Gamma_plot.svg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported  Contributors: Alessio
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