NOTES ON RIEMANNS ZETA FUNCTION

DRAGAN MILICIC

1. Gamma function
1.1. Definition of the Gamma function. The integral
Z
(z) = tz1 et dt
0

is well-defined and defines a holomorphic function in the right half-plane {z C |

Re z > 0}. This function is Eulers Gamma function.
First, by integration by parts
Z  Z
tz et dt = tz et  + z tz1 et dt = z(z)

(z + 1) =
0 0 0

for any z in the right half-plane. In particular, for any positive integer n, we have
(n) = (n 1)(n 1) = (n 1)!(1).
On the other hand,
Z 
t t 

(1) = e dt = e  = 1;
0 0
and we have the following result.
1.1.1. Lemma.
(n) = (n 1)!
for any n Z.
Therefore, we can view the Gamma function as a extension of the factorial.

1.2. Meromorphic continuation. Now we want to show that extends to a

meromorphic function in C. We start with a technical lemma.
P
1.2.1. Lemma. Let cn , n Z+ , be complex numbers such such that n=0 |cn |
converges. Let
S = {n | n Z+ and cn 6= 0}.
Then

X cn
f (z) =
n=0
z+n
converges absolutely for z C S and uniformly on bounded subsets of C S. The
function f is a meromorphic function on C with simple poles at the points in S and
Res(f, n) = cn for any n S.
1
2 D. MILICIC

Proof. Clearly, if |z| < R, we have |z + n| |n R| for all n R. Therefore, we

1 1
have | z+n | nR for |z| < R and n R. It follows that for n0 > R, we have

 X 
cn  X |cn | X |cn | 1 X
 |cn |.

n=n0
z + n n=n0
|z + n| nR n0 R
n=n0 n=n0
P cn
Hence, the series n>R z+n converges absolutely and uniformly on the disk {z |
P cn
|z| < R} and defines there a holomorphic function. It follows that n=0 z+n
is a meromorphic functionPon that disk with simple poles at the points of S in
{z | |z| < R}. Therefore, cn
n=0 z+n is a meromorphic function with simple poles
at the points in S. Therefore, for any n S we have
cn X cm cn
f (z) = + = + g(z)
z+n z+m z+n
mS{n}

where g is holomorphic at n. This implies that Res(f, n) = cn . 

Going back to , we have
Z Z 1 Z
(z) = tz1 et dt = tz1 et dt + tz1 et dt.
0 0 1
Clearly, the second integral converges for any complex z and represents an entire
function. On the other hand, since the exponential function is entire, its Taylor
series converges uniformly on compact sets in C, and we have

Z 1 Z 1 !
z1 t z1
X (1)p p
t e dt = t t dt
0 0 p=0
p!

(1)p 1 p+z1 (1)p 1
X Z X
= t dt =
p=0
p! 0 p=0
p! z + p

for any z C. Therefore,

(1)p 1
Z X
z1 t
(z) = t e dt +
1 p=0
p! z+p

for any z in the right half-plane. By 1.2.1, the right side of this equation defines a
meromorphic function on the complex plane with simple poles at 0, 1, 2, 3, .
Hence, we have the following result.
1.2.2. Theorem. The function extends to a meromorphic function on the complex
plane. It has simple poles at 0, 1, 2, 3, . The residues of are p are given
by
(1)p
Res(, p) =
p!
for any p Z+ .
This result combined with the above calculation immediately implies the follow-
ing functional equation.
1.2.3. Proposition. For any z C we have
(z + 1) = z(z).
 NOTES ON RIEMANNS ZETA FUNCTION 3

1.3. Another functional equation. Let Re z > 0. Then

Z
(z) = tz1 et dt.
0
Let Re p > 0 and Re q > 0. Then, by change of variable t = u2 , we get
Z Z
2
(p) = tp1 et dt = 2 eu u2p1 du.
0 0
Analogously we have Z
2
(q) = 2 ev v 2q1 dv.
0
Hence, it follows that
Z Z
2
+v 2 ) 2p1 2q1
(p)(q) = 4 e(u u v du dv,
0 0
and by passing to the polar coordinates by u = r cos , v = r sin , we have
Z Z 2
2
(p)(q) = 4 er r2(p+q)1 cos2p1 sin2q1 dr d
0 0
Z !
 Z 
2
2
= 2 er r2(p+q)1 dr 2 cos2p1 sin2q1 d
0 0
Z
2
= 2(p + q) cos2p1 sin2q1 d.
0

We put s = sin2 in the integral. Then we have

Z 2 Z 1
2 cos2p1 sin2q1 d = sq1 (1 s)p1 ds.
0 0
If we define Z 1
B(p, q) = sp1 (1 s)q1 ds
0
for Re p > 0, Re q > 0, we get the identity
(p)(q)
B(p, q) = B(q, p) = .
(p + q)
Here B is Eulers Beta function.
Let x (0, 1). Then we have
Z 1
(x)(1 x)
(x)(1 x) = = B(x, 1 x) = sx1 (1 s)x ds.
(1) 0
u
Moreover, if we change the variable s = u+1 , the integral becomes
Z 1 Z x
ux1

u du
sx1 (1 s)x ds = 1
0 0 (u + 1)x1 u+1 (u + 1)2
Z x1
u
= du.
0 1+u
1.3.1. Lemma. For y (0, 1) we have
Z y
u
du = .
0 1 + u sin y
4 D. MILICIC

Proof. We cut the complex plane along the positive real axis. On this region we
z y
define the function z 7 1+z with the argument of z y equal to 0 on the upper
side of the cut. This function has a first order pole at z = 1 with the residue
eiy .

CR

-1
-1-1
C

If we integrate this function along a path which goes along the upper side of the
cut from > 0 to R, then along the circle CR of radius R centered at the origin,
then along the lower side of the cut from R to and finally around the origin along
the circle C of radius , by the residue theorem we get
Z R y Z R y
z y z y
Z Z
u 2iy u
du + dz e du dz = 2ieiy .
1+u CR 1 + z 1+u C 1 + z
First we remark that for z 6= 0 we have
|z y | = |ey log z | = ey Re(log z) = ey log |z| = |z|y .
Hence, the integrand in the second and fourth integral satisfies
 y  y
 z
 |z|
 |z|y

 1 + z  |1 + z| .
|1 |z||
Hence, for small we have
z y 1y
Z 
 
 dz  2 ;

C 1+z (1 )
and for large R we have
z y 1y
Z 
 2 R
 
 dz ;
CR 1 + z (R 1)
 
R R
Clearly, this implies that CR 0 as R and C 0 as 0. This implies
that

uy
Z
2iy
1e du = 2ieiy .
0 1+u
 NOTES ON RIEMANNS ZETA FUNCTION 5

It follows that
uy
Z
eiy eiy


du = 2i
0 1+u
and finally

uy
Z

du = .
0 1+u sin y

This lemma implies that

(x)(1 x) = = .
sin (1 x) sin x
for x (0, 1). Since both sides are meromorphic, it follows that the following result
holds.
1.3.2. Proposition. For all z C, we have

(z)(1 z) = .
sin z
Since z 7 sin z is an entire function, the right side obviously has no zeros. So,
(z) = 0 is possible only at points where z 7 (1 z) has poles. Since the poles
of are at 0, 1, 2, , it follows that poles of z 7 (1 z) are at 1, 2, 3, .
At these points (n + 1) = n! 6= 0. Therefore, we proved the following result.
1.3.3. Theorem. The function has no zeros.

2. Zeta function
2.1. Meromorphic continuation. Riemanns zeta function is defined by

X 1
(z) =
n=1
nz
for Re z > 1. In that region the series converges uniformly on compact sets and
represents a holomorphic function.
If we consider the expression for the Gamma function
Z
(z) = tz1 et dt
0
for Re z > 0, and change the variable t into t = ns for n N, we get
Z
(z) = nz sz1 ens ds,
0
i.e., we have Z
(z)
= tz1 ent dt
nz 0
for any n N and Re z > 0. This implies that, for Re z > 1, we have
X Z
(z)(z) = tz1 ent dt
n=1 0

!

et tz1
Z X Z Z
z1 nt z1
= t e dt = t dt = dt.
0 n=1 0 1 et 0 et 1
This establishes the following integral representation for the zeta function.
6 D. MILICIC

2.1.1. Lemma. For Re z > 1 we have

tz1
Z
(z)(z) = dt.
0 et 1
This integral can be split in to two parts
Z z1 Z 1 z1 Z z1
t t t
(z)(z) = t1
dt = t1
dt + t1
dt.
0 e 0 e 1 e
Clearly, the second integral converges for all z C and therefore represents an
entire function which we denote by F .
On the other hand, the function z 7 ez11 has a simple pole at 0 with residue
1. Therefore,
1 1
= + G(z)
ez 1 z
where G is an meromorphic function with first order poles at 2mi with integer
m 6= 0. It follows that

1 1 X
= + cn z n
ez 1 z n=0
for any |z| < 2. By Cauchys estimates, if we fix 0 < r < 2, it follows that
|cn | rMn for some M > 0. In particular, there exists M > 0 such that |cn | 2Mn
for all n Z+ .
This implies that, for Re z > 1, since the above series converges uniformly on
[0, 1], we have

Z 1 z1 Z 1 Z 1 X !
t
t
dt = tz2 dt + cn tz+n1 dt
0 e 1 0 0 n=0
Z 1
1 X 1 X cn
= + cn tz+n1 dt = + .
z 1 n=0 0 z 1 n=0 z + n

Therefore, we have

1 X cn
(z)(z) = F (z) + + .
z 1 n=0 z + n

By 1.2.1, the right side is a meromorphic function, holomorphic for any complex z
different form z = 1, 0, 1, 2, . . . . Hence, z 7 (z)(z) extends to a meromor-
phic function in the complex plane with simple pole at 1 and either simple poles or
removable singularities at z = 0, 1, 2, . . . depending if cn 6= 0 or cn = 0. Since
1
has no zeros, z 7 (z) is an entire function. This implies that the zeta function
extends to a meromorphic function in the complex plane.
Since (1) = 1, has a simple pole at 1 with residue equal to 1. Moreover, since
has simple poles at z = 0, 1, 2, . . . by 1.2.2, the function 1 has simple zeros
there. It follows that has removable singularities at z = 0, 1, 2, . . . . Therefore,
we established the following result.
2.1.2. Theorem. The zeta function is a meromorphic function with simple pole
at 1. The residue at this pole is 1.
 NOTES ON RIEMANNS ZETA FUNCTION 7

2.2. The functional equation. In this section we prove the following result.
2.2.1. Theorem. For any z C, we have
 z 
(z) = z1 2z sin (1 z)(1 z).
2
To establish this functional equation we first establish a variant of 2.1.1.
Let C be a path sketched in the following figure.

2i

-1
C
-2i

We cut the complex plane along positive real axis and consider the integral
wz1
Z
w
dw.
C e 1
Here we fix the argument of w to be 0 on the top side of the cut and 2 on the
bottom. Clearly, the integrand is holomorphic on the complement of the positive
real axes except at zeros of the denominator of the integrand, i.e., at the points
2mi for m Z.
If the radius of the arc C is less than 2, it follows immediately from the
Cauchy theorem that this integral doesnt depend on and the distance of the
horizontal lines from the positive real axis. Therefore, to evaluate it we can let
and that distance tend to 0.
First we remark that for w 6= 0 we have
|wz | = |ez log w | = eRe(z log w) = eRe z log |w|Im z arg(w) = |w|Re z e Im z arg(w) .
Since the argument is in [0, 2], for a fixed z, we see that |wz | < M |w|Re z for some
positive constant M .
We can estimate the integral over C as
Z 2
wz1
Z 
  Re z 1

w1
dw  M

ei 1|
d.

C e 0 |e
Since w 7 ew 1 has a simple zero at the origin, ew 1 = wg(w) where g is
holomorphic near the origin and g(0) = 1. It follows that
1
|ew 1| |w|
2
8 D. MILICIC

for small w. Hence, we have

wz1
Z 
 4M Re z1
 

w
dw

C e 1 
for small . In particular, if Re z > 1, we see that the integral over C tends to 0
as 0.
Hence, by taking the limit as goes to zero, and the horizontal lines tend to the
real axis, we get
Z z1 Z z1
wz1
Z
t 2(z1)i t
w 1
dw = t1
dt e t1
dt
C e 0 e 0 e

tz1
Z Z z1
t
= 1 e2iz dt = 2ie iz
sin(z) dt
0 et 1 0 et 1
= 2ieiz sin(z)(z)(z)
by 2.1.1. This implies that
wz1
Z
2ieiz sin(z)(z)(z) = w
dw
C e 1
for any path C we considered above and Re z > 1. Clearly, the right integral
makes sense for arbitrary complex z, hence this equality is an equality of mero-
morphic functions on C. This yields the following result, which is another integral
representation of as a meromorphic function.
2.2.2. Lemma. For any z C, we have
wz1
Z
i iz
sin(z)(z)(z) = e dw.
2 C ew 1
On the other hand, we can calculate using the residue theorem the integral
along the path drawn in the following figure. There the outside square passes
thru points (2m + 1)i and (2m + 1)i.

2(m+1)i

2mi

2i

-1

-2i

-2mi

-2(m+1)i
 NOTES ON RIEMANNS ZETA FUNCTION 9

We have
m 
wz1
Z 
X (z1) (z1)

w
dw = 2i (2n)z1 ei 2 + (2n)z1 e3i 2
e 1 n=1
 (z1) m
X
(z1)
= 2z z iei(z1) ei 2 + ei 2 nz1
n=1
 m
X
(z 1) 1
= 2z+1 z ieiz cos
2 n=1
n1z
m
 z  X 1
= 2z+1 z ieiz sin .
2 n=1
n1z
Now we want to estimate the integral along the sides of the square for Re z < 0.
For a fixed z, we see as before that there exists M > 0, such that on the right
vertical side of the square the integrand satisfies the estimate
|w|Re z1
 z1 
 w 
 ew 1  M |ew 1| .
 

Moreover, we have
|ew 1| ||ew | 1| = |eRe w 1|
for any w, hence we have
|w|Re z1 | Re w|Re z1
 z1 
 w 
 ew 1  M |eRe w 1| M |eRe w 1|
 

and the right side of the square. This expression clearly tends to zero faster than
1
Re w as Re w +. Hence, the integral over the right side tends to zero as the
square grows.
On the left side of the square we have the same estimate
Re z1
 z1 
 M | Re w|
 w 
 .
 ew 1  |eRe w 1|
Since Re w is negative in this case, for large | Re w| we have
 z1 
 w  Re z1
 ew 1  2M | Re w| .
 

Since Re z < 0, this bound goes to zero faster that | Re1 w| . On the other hand, the
length of the side of the square is 2| Re w|. Hence, the integral along the left side
also tends to zero as the square grows.
It remains to treat the top and bottom side. As before, we see that on these
sides we have
|w|Re z1 | Im w|Re z1
 z1 
 w 
 ew 1  M |ew 1| M |ew 1| .
 

On the other hand, the function w 7 |ew 1| on the horizontal lines tends to
as Re w + and to 1 as Re w . Hence it is bounded from below.
Moreover, since it is periodic with period 2i, shifting the line up and down by 2i
doesnt change that bound. Hence, in our estimates we can assume that
1
C
|ew 1|
10 D. MILICIC

on top and bottom sides of all squares. This implies that

 z1 
 w  Re z1
 ew 1  M C| Im w|
 

on top and bottom sides of all squares. Since Re z < 0 and the length of these sides
is 2| Im w|, we see that the integrals over these sides tend to zero as the squares
grow.
Hence, for Re z < 0, as the squares grow, i.e., as m tends to infinity, the integral
over the sides of the square tends to 0 and the integral along converges to the
integral along the path C from 2.2.2. In addition, the sum on the right side of the
above expression converges to the series for (1 z), i.e., we have
 z 
2ieiz sin(z)(z)(z) = 2z+1 z ieiz sin (z 1).
2
Hence, we have
 z 
sin(z)(z)(z) = 2z z sin (1 z).
2
This yields
 z   z   z 
2 sin cos (z)(z) = 2z z sin (1 z).
2 2 2
and
 z 
cos (z)(z) = 2z1 z (1 z).
2
for all z C. By substituting 1 z for z we get
 
(1 z)
2z 1z (z) = cos (1 z)(1 z)
2
and finally
 z 
(z) = 2z z1 sin (1 z)(1 z)
2
what completes the proof of the theorem.

2.3. Euler product formula. Let P be the set of all prime numbers in N. Assume
that P = {p1 , p2 , . . . } written in the natural ordering. For any m N, let Sm be the
subset of N consisting of all integers which are not divisible by primes p1 , p2 , . . . , pm .
Then we claim that, for Re z > 1, we have
m  
Y 1 X 1
(z) 1 z = .
pk nz
k=1 nSm

Clearly, p1 = 2, and we have

 
1 X 1 X 1 X 1
1 z (z) = z
z
= .
2 n=1
n n=1
(2n) nz
nS1

So, the statement holds for m = 1.

 NOTES ON RIEMANNS ZETA FUNCTION 11

Assume that the statement holds for m. Then, by the induction assumption, we
have

  m     X
1 Y 1 1 1
1 (z) 1 z = 1 z
pzm+1 pk pm+1 nz
k=1 nSm
X 1 X 1 X 1
= = .
nz (pm+1 n)z nz
nSm nSm nSm+1

This establishes the above claim. Therefore, we see that as m tends to we get
the formula
 
Y 1
(z) 1 z = 1,
pk
k=1

i.e., the following result holds.

2.3.1. Theorem (Euler product). For Re z > 1 we have

Y 1
(z) =  .
1
pP 1 pz

The factors in Euler products are nonzero and holomorphic for Re z > 0.
The above observation lead Euler to a proof that the set P is infinite. The
finiteness of P would imply that the Euler product is holomorphic for Re z > 0,
contradicting the fact that has a pole at 1.1
The Euler product formula implies that has no zeros for Re z > 1.

2.4. Riemann hypothesis. Since has no zeros for Re z > 1, and has no zeros
at all by 1.3.3, we see from the functional equation 2.2.1 that the only zeros of
for Re z < 0 come from zeros of the function z 7 sin z


2 at points 2, 4, . . . .
These are called the trivial zeros of .
It follows that all other zeros of have to lie in the strip 0 Re z 1. It is
called the critical strip.

1Actually, Euler didnt use complex variables. One can show that finiteness of primes would
contradict the fact that harmonic series diverge.
12 D. MILICIC

Im z

Critical Strip

-2 -1 0 Re z
1

zero Simple pole

Critical line

Riemann conjectured that all zeros of in the critical strip lie on the critical line
Re z = 12 . This is the Riemann hypothesis.
Hadamard and de la Valee-Poussin proved that there are no zeros of on the
boundary of the critical strip (i.e., for Re z = 0 and Re z = 1). This implies the
Prime Number Theorem conjectured by Gauss.