Recurrence relation for gamma function

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Revision as of 02:06, 1 May 2008 by Vipul (talk | contribs) (New page: ==Statement== Let <math>\Gamma</math> denote the gamma function as defined on the right half-plane by: <math>\Gamma(z) = \int_0^\infty t^{z-1}e^{-t} \, dt</math> Then, <math>\Ga...)
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Statement

Let denote the gamma function as defined on the right half-plane by:

Then, satisfies the following functional equation:

whenever is in the right half-plane.

In fact, we use this functional equation to extend to a meromorphic function on , so the functional equation holds more generally for any that is not a non-positive integer (non-positive integers are precisely the simple poles).

Proof

The proof is using integration by parts.