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GH from MO
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$\zeta(0)$ and the cotangent function

In preparing some practice problems for my complex analysis students, I stumbled across the following. It is not hard to show, using Liouville's theorem, that $$\pi\cot(\pi z)=\frac{1}{z}+\sum_{n=1}^\infty\left(\frac{1}{z+n}+\frac{1}{z-n}\right),$$ which implies that $$-\frac{\pi z}{2}\cot(\pi z)=-\frac{1}{2}+\sum_{k=1}^\infty\zeta(2k)z^{2k},\qquad 0<|z|<1.$$ This formula predicts correctly that $\zeta(0)=-\frac{1}{2}$, and allows to calculate $\zeta(2k)$ as a rational multiple of $\pi^{2k}$ as well (in terms of Bernoulli numbers).

Is there some simple explanation why the above prediction $\zeta(0)=-\frac{1}{2}$ is valid? Perhaps there is a not so simple but still transparent explanation via Eisenstein series.

GH from MO
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