Polylogarithm

In mathematics, the polylogarithm (also known as Jonquire's function) is a special function Lis(z) of order s and argument z. Only for special values of s does the polylogarithm reduce to an elementary function such as the natural logarithm or rational functions. In quantum statistics, the polylogarithm function appears as the closed form of integrals of the FermiDirac distribution and the BoseEinstein distribution, and is also known as the FermiDirac integral or the Bose Einstein integral. In quantum electrodynamics, polylogarithms of positive integer order arise in the calculation of processes represented by higher-order Feynman diagrams. The polylogarithm function is equivalent to the Hurwitz zeta function either function can be expressed in terms of the other and both functions are special cases of the Lerch transcendent. Polylogarithms should not be confused with polylogarithmic functions nor with the offset logarithmic integral which has a similar notation. Different polylogarithm functions in the complex plane

Li3(z)

Li2(z)

Li1(z)

Li0(z)

Li1(z)

Li2(z)

Li3(z)

The polylogarithm function is defined by the infinite sum, or power series:

This definition is valid for arbitrary complex order s and for all complex arguments z with |z| < 1; it can be extended to |z| 1 by the process of analytic continuation. The special case s = 1 involves the ordinary natural logarithm, Li1(z) = ln(1z), while the special cases s = 2 and s = 3 are called the dilogarithm (also referred to as Spence's function) and trilogarithm respectively. The name of the function comes from the fact that it may also be defined as the repeated integral of itself:

thus the dilogarithm is an integral of the logarithm, and so on. For nonpositive integer orders s, the polylogarithm is a rational function.

Contents

1 Properties 2 Particular values 3 Relationship to other functions 4 Integral representations 5 Series representations 6 Asymptotic expansions 7 Limiting behavior 8 Dilogarithm 9 Polylogarithm ladders 10 Monodromy 11 References 12 External links

Properties
Preliminary note: In the important case where the polylogarithm order s is an integer, it will be represented by n (or n when negative). It is often convenient to define = ln(z) where ln(z) is the principal branch of the complex logarithm Ln(z) so that < Im() . Also, all exponentiation will be assumed to be single-valued: zs = exp(s ln(z)). Depending on the order s, the polylogarithm may be multi-valued. The principal branch of Lis(z) is taken to be given for |z| < 1 by the above series definition and taken to be continuous except on the positive real axis, where a cut is made from z = 1 to such that the axis is placed on the lower half plane of z. In terms of , this amounts to < arg() . The discontinuity of the polylogarithm in dependence on can sometimes be confusing. For real argument z, the polylogarithm of real order s is real if z < 1, and its imaginary part for z 1 is (Wood 1992, 3):

Going across the cut, if is an infinitesimally small positive real number, then:

Both can be concluded from the series expansion (see below) of Lis(e) about = 0. The derivatives of the polylogarithm follow from the defining power series:

The square relationship is easily seen from the duplication formula (see also Clunie (1954), Schrdinger (1952)):

Note that Kummer's function obeys a very similar duplication formula. This is a special case of the multiplication formula, for any positive integer p:

which can be proved using the series definition of the polylogarithm and the orthogonality of the exponential terms (see e.g. discrete Fourier transform). Another important property, the inversion formula, involves the Hurwitz zeta function or the Bernoulli polynomials and is found under relationship to other functions below.

Particular values

For particular cases, the polylogarithm may be expressed in terms of other functions (see below). Particular values for the polylogarithm may thus also be found as particular values of these other functions. 1. For integer values of the polylogarithm order, the following explicit expressions are obtained by repeated application of z/z to Li1(z):

Accordingly the polylogarithm reduces to a ratio of polynomials in z, and is therefore a rational function of z, for all nonpositive integer orders. The general case may be expressed as a finite sum:

where S(n,k) are the Stirling numbers of the second kind. Equivalent formulae applicable to negative integer orders are (Wood 1992, 6):

and:

where are the Eulerian numbers. All roots of Lin(z) are distinct and real; they include z = 0, while the remainder is negative and centered about z = 1 on a logarithmic scale. As n becomes large, the numerical evaluation of these rational expressions increasingly suffers from cancellation (Wood 1992, 6); full accuracy can be obtained, however, by computing Lin(z) via the general relation with the Hurwitz zeta function (see below). 2. Some particular expressions for half-integer values of the argument z are:

where is the Riemann zeta function. No formulae of this type are known for higher integer orders (Lewin 1991, p. 2), but one has for instance (Borwein, Borwein & Girgensohn 1995):

which involves the alternating double sum (Broadhurst 1996, p. 9):

. In general one has for integer orders n 2

where (s1, ..., sk) is the multiple zeta function; for example:

3. As a straightforward consequence of the series definition, values of the polylogarithm at the pth complex roots of unity are given by the Fourier sum:

where is the Hurwitz zeta function. For Re(s) > 1, where Lis(1) is finite, the relation also holds with m = 0 or m = p. While this formula is not as simple as that implied by the more general relation with the Hurwitz zeta function listed under relationship to other functions below, it has the advantage of applying to non-negative integer values of s as well. As usual, the relation may be inverted to express (s, mp) for any m = 1, ..., p as a Fourier sum of Lis(exp(2i kp)) over k = 1, ..., p.

Relationship to other functions

For z = 1 the polylogarithm reduces to the Riemann zeta function

The polylogarithm is related to Dirichlet eta function and the Dirichlet beta function:

where (s) is the Dirichlet eta function. For pure imaginary arguments, we have: where (s) is the Dirichlet beta function.

The polylogarithm is related to the complete FermiDirac integral as:

The polylogarithm is a special case of the incomplete polylogarithm function

The polylogarithm is a special case of the Lerch transcendent (Erdlyi et al. 1981, 1.1114)

The polylogarithm is related to the Hurwitz zeta function by:

which relation, however, is invalidated at positive integer s by poles of the gamma function (1s), and at s = 0 by a pole of both zeta functions; a derivation of this formula is given under series representations below. With a little help from a functional equation for the Hurwitz zeta function, the polylogarithm is consequently also related to that function via (Jonquire 1889): which relation holds for 0 Re(x) < 1 if Im(x) 0, and for 0 < Re(x) 1 if Im(x) < 0. Equivalently, for all complex s and for complex z ]0;1], the inversion formula reads and for all complex s and for complex z ]1;[ For z ]0;[ one has ln(z) = ln(1z), and both expressions agree. These relations furnish the analytic continuation of the polylogarithm beyond the circle of convergence |z| = 1 of the defining power series. (Note that the corresponding equation of Jonquire (1889, eq. 5) and Erdlyi et al. (1981, 1.11-16) is not correct if one assumes that the principal branches of the polylogarithm and the logarithm are used simultaneously.) See the next item for a simplified formula when s is an integer.

For positive integer polylogarithm orders s, the Hurwitz zeta function (1s, x) reduces to Bernoulli polynomials, (1n, x) = Bn(x) / n, and Jonquire's inversion formula for n = 1, 2, 3, ... becomes:

where again 0 Re(x) < 1 if Im(x) 0, and 0 < Re(x) 1 if Im(x) < 0. Upon restriction of the polylogarithm argument to the unit circle, Im(x) = 0, the left hand side of this formula simplifies to 2 Re(Lin(e2ix)) if n is even, and to 2i Im(Lin(e2ix)) if n is odd. For negative integer orders, on the other hand, the divergence of (s) implies for all z that (Erdlyi et al. 1981, 1.11-17):

More generally one has for n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ... :

where both expressions agree for z ]0;[. (Note that the corresponding equation of Jonquire (1889, eq. 1) and Erdlyi et al. (1981, 1.11-18) is again not correct.)

The polylogarithm with pure imaginary may be expressed in terms of the Clausen functions Cis() and Sis(), and vice versa (Lewin 1958, Ch. VII 1.4; Abramowitz & Stegun 1972, 27.8):

The inverse tangent integral Tis(z) (Lewin 1958, Ch. VII 1.2) can be expressed in terms of polylogarithms:

The relation in particular implies:

which explains the function name.

The Legendre chi function s(z) (Lewin 1958, Ch. VII 1.1; Boersma & Dempsey 1992) can be expressed in terms of polylogarithms:

The polylogarithm of integer order can be expressed as a generalized hypergeometric function:

In terms of the incomplete zeta functions or "Debye functions" (Abramowitz & Stegun 1972, 27.1):

the polylogarithm Lin(z) for positive integer n may be expressed as the finite sum (Wood 1992, 16): A remarkably similar expression relates the "Debye functions" Zn(z) to the polylogarithm: