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101 votes
10 answers
16k views

Why do Bernoulli numbers arise everywhere?

I have seen Bernoulli numbers many times, and sometimes very surprisingly. They appear in my textbook on complex analysis, in algebraic topology, and of course, number theory. Things like the criteria ...
45 votes
16 answers
8k views

What does the generating function $x/(1 - e^{-x})$ count?

Let $x$ be a formal (or small, since the function is analytic) variable, and consider the power series $$ A(x) = \frac{x}{1 - e^{-x}} = \sum_{m=0}^\infty \left( -\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{(-x)^n}{(n+1)!}...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
584 views

What is this sequence?

This is again a question that I asked at Stack Exchange, but got no answer so far, so I am trying here. Let: $$ a_n=\sum_{k\ge0}(k+1) {n+2\brack k+2}(n+2)^kB_k$$ $B_k$ is the Bernoulli number. ${n\...
René Gy's user avatar
  • 505
8 votes
2 answers
386 views

Coefficients of shifted Bernoulli polynomials

I stumbled across the following curious empirical properties of the Bernoulli polynomials $B_n(x)$. Can anyone provide a reference or proof? Let $k\in\mathbb{Z}$, $k\geq 2$. Then (empirically): The ...
Richard Stanley's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
252 views

Hankel determinants for some convolutions of Catalan numbers

Let $c(x)=\frac{1-\sqrt{1-4x}}{2x}$ be the generating function of the Catalan numbers and let $$x^k c(x)^{2k}=(c(x)-1)^k =\sum_{n\geq0}c(k,n)x^n.$$ Consider the determinants $$D(k,n,m)= \det\left(c(k,...
Johann Cigler's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
260 views

Kummer's congruence at $p=3$

Let $B_{2k}$ be the Bernoulli numbers of even index and $\varphi(n)$ be Euler's totient function. We recall one instance of Kummer's congruences: for each integer $m\geq1$ and a prime number $p\geq5$, ...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
128 views

A combinatorial triangle for the Bernoulli numbers

Motivation: We informally call an infinite lower triangular matrix $\operatorname{T}(n, k)$ of integers a combinatorial triangle of a sequence of integers or rational numbers if it can be obtained ...
Peter Luschny's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
507 views

Conjecture on bernoulli numbers and binomial coefficients

Crossposted from https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/4116414/conjecture-on-bernoulli-numbers-and-binomial-coefficients In playing around with some formulas, I have come up with the following ...
Fox Mulder's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
186 views

Combinatorial interpretation of Sylvester–Lipschitz formula?

If we denote the Bernoulli numbers by $B_n$, then $$ {a^{k+1}(a^{2k} - 1) B_{2k} \over 2k}\in \mathbb{Z}$$ for any $a\in \mathbb{Z}$ and $k\in\mathbb{N}$. This fact is often called the Sylvester–...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
  • 82.7k
3 votes
0 answers
157 views

Combinatorial interpretation for Möbius-poly-Bernoulli numbers

The Möbius-Bernoulli numbers ,are related to Dedekind Sums $$\sum_{d|n}\frac{t\mu(d)}{e^{td}-1}=\sum_{k=0}^\infty M_k(n)\frac{t^k}{k!}$$ where $|t|<\frac{2\pi}{n}$, and $M_k(1)=B_k$. We define the ...
user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
211 views

Bilinear recurrence relation between even Bernoulli numbers

Throughout this question $n$ is a positive integer greater than 1. Consider the following well-known identity by Euler, $$\sum_{k=1}^{n-1} \binom{2n}{2k}B_{2k}B_{2n-2k}=-(2n+1)B_{2n}.$$ Rather ...
bryanjaeho's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
141 views

Simplifying a rational function in terms of Bernoulli numbers and polynomials

Faulhaber's formula expresses a sum over some finite number of naturals to the $m^{th}$ power in terms of the Bernoulli numbers $B_{j}$ (using the $B_{1} = 1/2$ convention) or polynomials $\hat{B}_{j}$...
Matthew Cassell's user avatar