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Let $k \ge 1,B \ge 2$ integers and $\zeta^{(k)}(s)$ denote the $k$-th derivative of Riemann zeta function. For real $x$, let $[x]$ denote the nearest integer to $x$.

Conjecture 1: For all $n \ge 1,[\zeta^{(n)}(1/2)]= -2^{n+1} n!$

Conjecture 2: For all $k \ge 1,B \ge 2$ we have $[\zeta^{(k)}(1-1/B)]= -B^{k+1}\cdot k!$ and $\zeta^{(k)}(1-1/B)$ is very close to integer.

sagemath code per request:

def zetania2(LK=10,prec=100,bb=[3,5]):
    """
    zeta^(k)(1-1/B), near to integers
    """
    import mpmath
    mpmath.mp.pretty=1
    mpmath.mp.dps=prec
    pre2=10
    for B in bb:
        l0=[]
        lerr=[]
        for k in range(1,LK+1):
            T=mpmath.zeta(1-1/mpmath.mpf(B),derivative=k)
            N=mpmath.nint(T)
            N2= -B**(k+1) * factorial(k)
            l0 += [N-N2]
        print(B,l0)
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  • $\begingroup$ Could you please provide some numerical evidence? $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 25, 2021 at 15:54
  • $\begingroup$ @SylvainJULIEN Added sagemath code. I believe you can run it in a browser. $\endgroup$
    – joro
    Commented Sep 25, 2021 at 17:01
  • $\begingroup$ @SylvainJULIEN Can you check the conjectures with a CAS different from sage/mpmath? Answer claims they are false. $\endgroup$
    – joro
    Commented Sep 25, 2021 at 18:02
  • $\begingroup$ I'm not well versed in using such software. And to be honest, as your conjectures are disproven, I don't quite see the point of checking them. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 25, 2021 at 18:29
  • $\begingroup$ @MarkSapir The questions are entirely different: one is true, one is false. $\endgroup$
    – joro
    Commented Sep 27, 2021 at 6:24

1 Answer 1

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Both conjectures are false. Suppose your conjectured identity holds for all $k\geq 1$ and some $B\geq 2$. It is known that $$ f(s)=\zeta(s)-\frac{1}{s-1} $$ is an entire function. Your identity for fixed $B$ implies, for instance, that $|f^{(k)}(1-1/B)|\leq 1$. By Taylor expansion, from this we get for all $s\in \mathbb C$ that $$ |f(s)|=\left|\sum_{k=0}^{+\infty}\frac{f^{(k)}(1-1/B)}{k!}(s-1+1/B)^k\right|\leq |f(1/B)|+e^{|s-1+1/B|}. $$ The last bound cannot hold, because $f(-n)$ grows more than exponentially for odd integer $n\to+\infty$.

UPDATE: as for the numerical evidence, $k=41$ seems to be the least value of $k$ with $$ |\zeta^{(k)}(1-1/B)+k!B^{k+1}|>1 $$ for $B=2,3,4$. This was computed using the function $\it{derivnum}$ in Pari/GP.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. I get experimental support for the conjectures, possibly due to a bug in the libraries I am using. What would be a small counterexample or set of counterexamples to check numerically? $\endgroup$
    – joro
    Commented Sep 25, 2021 at 17:59
  • $\begingroup$ The derivatives of $\zeta(s)$ at a point such as $1-1/B$ behaves in a complicated way. The first few may be dominated by the pole at $0$. So they are near integers if $B$ is an integer. The Taylor series of $f(s)$ is not a good recipe to compute $f(-n)$. Mathematica gives $\zeta^{(4)}(1-1/3)=-5831.99742689039619$ near an integer. mpmath gives -5831.9974268904026. I do not think there is a bug here. $\endgroup$
    – juan
    Commented Sep 25, 2021 at 20:52
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    $\begingroup$ @Henri Cohen, why is it only implied for $k$ odd? The $k$-th derivative of $(s-1)^{-1}$ at $s=1-1/B$ is precisely $k!(-1)^k(s-1)^{-k-1}=-k!(1/(1-s))^{k+1}=-k!B^{k+1}$, the parity of $k$ shouldn't matter, as far as I see. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 25, 2021 at 22:04
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    $\begingroup$ @Henri Cohen, besides, even if it was true only for odd $k$, this would imply a similar exponential bound for $f(s)−f(2−2/B−s)$, which is once again false due to the same counterexample. I believe that the experimental data is a kind of the "law of small numbers" and the fact that $\zeta(s)$ grows "slightly" more than exponentially at $s=−n$ for large odd $n$ contributes to this $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 25, 2021 at 22:27
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    $\begingroup$ My bad. I had divided by $k!$ in my computations. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 26, 2021 at 8:21

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