Euler's reflection formula
Statement
For every with , .
Why is it true?
It links a purely algebraic-looking object (a ratio of two Gamma values) to trigonometry, and it is exactly the identity that makes the poles of at non-positive integers line up with the zeros of at all integers — the residue calculus from contour integration is what produces the sine on the right-hand side.
Proof sketch
Step 1 (Reduce to the Beta function). Using with , . Substituting turns this into for .
Step 2 (Set up a keyhole contour). To evaluate , use the branch of cut along the positive real axis and integrate around a keyhole contour: outward just above the cut, a large circle of radius , back just below the cut, and a small circle of radius around .
Step 3 (Residue at the only pole). The only singularity of inside the contour is the simple pole at , where (using the branch with argument there) , so the residue theorem gives the keyhole integral as .
Step 4 (Compare the two sides of the cut and let , ). The large and small circles vanish for , and the two straight segments differ by the phase picked up by crossing the cut, giving . Solving for and simplifying the exponentials using gives , so combining with Step 1, .
Topics that use this theorem
Step-by-step proofs
No step-by-step proof yet for this theorem.
References
- Frank W. J. Olver, Ronald F. Boisvert, Daniel W. Lozier, Charles W. Clark (eds.) (2023). NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions, Chapter 5: Gamma Function
- Frank W. J. Olver, Ronald F. Boisvert, Daniel W. Lozier, Charles W. Clark (eds.) (2023). NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions, Chapter 25: Zeta and Related Functions
- David J. Platt, Timothy S. Trudgian (2021). The Riemann Hypothesis Is True Up to 3×10^12 · arXiv:2004.09765