Logarithmic integral function

In mathematics, the logarithmic integral function or integral

logarithm li(x) is a special function. It is relevant in problems of
physics and has number theoretic significance. In particular,
according to the prime number theorem, it is a very good
approximation to the prime-counting function, which is defined as
the number of prime numbers less than or equal to a given value .

Integral representation
The logarithmic integral has an integral representation defined for
all positive real numbers x ≠ 1 by the definite integral Plot of the logarithmic integral
function li(z) in the complex plane
from -2-2i to 2+2i with colors created
with Mathematica 13.1 function
ComplexPlot3D
Here, ln denotes the natural logarithm. The function 1/(ln t) has a
singularity at t = 1 , and the integral for x > 1 is
interpreted as a Cauchy principal value,

Offset logarithmic integral

The offset logarithmic integral or Eulerian
logarithmic integral is defined as

Logarithmic integral function plot

As such, the integral representation has the advantage of avoiding the singularity in the domain of
integration.

Equivalently,

Special values
The function li(x) has a single positive zero; it occurs at x ≈ 1.45136 92348 83381 05028 39684 85892
02744 94930... OEIS: A070769; this number is known as the Ramanujan–Soldner constant.

li(Li^-1(0)) = li(2) ≈ 1.045163 780117 492784 844588 889194 613136 522615 578151... OEIS: A069284
This is where is the incomplete gamma function. It must be understood as
the Cauchy principal value of the function.

Series representation
The function li(x) is related to the exponential integral Ei(x) via the equation

which is valid for x > 0. This identity provides a series representation of li(x) as

where γ ≈ 0.57721 56649 01532 ... OEIS: A001620 is the Euler–Mascheroni constant. A more rapidly
convergent series by Ramanujan [1] is

Asymptotic expansion
The asymptotic behavior for x → ∞ is

where is the big O notation. The full asymptotic expansion is

or

This gives the following more accurate asymptotic behaviour:

As an asymptotic expansion, this series is not convergent: it is a reasonable approximation only if the series
is truncated at a finite number of terms, and only large values of x are employed. This expansion follows
directly from the asymptotic expansion for the exponential integral.

This implies e.g. that we can bracket li as:

for all .

Number theoretic significance

The logarithmic integral is important in number theory, appearing in estimates of the number of prime
numbers less than a given value. For example, the prime number theorem states that:

where denotes the number of primes smaller than or equal to .

Assuming the Riemann hypothesis, we get the even stronger:[2]

In fact, the Riemann hypothesis is equivalent to the statement that:

for any .

For small , but the difference changes sign an infinite number of times as increases, and
the first time this happens is somewhere between 1019 and 1.4×10316 .

See also
Jørgen Pedersen Gram
Skewes' number
List of integrals of logarithmic functions

References
1. Weisstein, Eric W. "Logarithmic Integral" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/LogarithmicIntegral.
html). MathWorld.
2. Abramowitz and Stegun, p. 230, 5.1.20

Abramowitz, Milton; Stegun, Irene Ann, eds. (1983) [June 1964]. "Chapter 5" (http://www.mat
h.ubc.ca/~cbm/aands/page_228.htm). Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas,
Graphs, and Mathematical Tables. Applied Mathematics Series. Vol. 55 (Ninth reprint with
additional corrections of tenth original printing with corrections (December 1972); first ed.).
Washington D.C.; New York: United States Department of Commerce, National Bureau of
Standards; Dover Publications. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-486-61272-0. LCCN 64-60036 (https://lc
cn.loc.gov/64-60036). MR 0167642 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=016
7642). LCCN 65-12253 (https://lccn.loc.gov/65012253).
Temme, N. M. (2010), "Exponential, Logarithmic, Sine, and Cosine Integrals" (http://dlmf.nist.
gov/6), in Olver, Frank W. J.; Lozier, Daniel M.; Boisvert, Ronald F.; Clark, Charles W. (eds.),
NIST Handbook of Mathematical Functions, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-
19225-5, MR 2723248 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=2723248).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Logarithmic_integral_function&oldid=1172089419"