הצטרף ל-Nostr
2026-02-16 23:22:02 CET
in reply to

John Carlos Baez on Nostr: The slow 'beats' in the absolute value of the zeta function 1/(1 - 3⁻ˢ)(1 - ...

The slow 'beats' in the absolute value of the zeta function

1/(1 - 3⁻ˢ)(1 - 5⁻ˢ)

arise because it's the product of two functions: 1/1 - 3⁻ˢ with period

2π/ln(3) ≈ 5.719

and 1/1 - 3⁻ˢ with period

2π/ln(5) ≈ 3.904

These functions both become big simultaneously when there are integers m,n with

m 2π/ln(3) ≈ n 2π/ln(5)

or in other words

m/n ≈ ln(3)/ln(5)

So finding the tallest peaks in the absolute value of the zeta function amounts to looking for good rational approximations of this number:

ln(3)/ln(5) ≈ 0.682606194

Here are the first few:

2/3 ≈ 0.6667
13/19 ≈ 0.6842
15/22 ≈ 0.6818

The first says we expect tall peaks spaced apart by roughly

2 × [2π/ln(3)] ≈ 3 × [2π/ln(5)]

These numbers are close but not equal! Look at them:

4π/ln(3) ≈ 11.44
6π/ln(5) ≈ 11.71

This explains why I empirically found that the very tall spikes in the graph below are separated by a distance of about 11.58. However, my guess that this distance is really

5 × [2π/ln(15)] ≈ 11.6009

may be completely wrong.

(4/n)