1. Introduction
It has been more than 160 years since the RH was proposed in Riemann’s paper in 1859 [1]. Many efforts and achievements have been made towards proving this celebrated hypothesis, but it still remains an open problem [2,3].
The Riemann zeta function is originally defined in the half-plane
by the absolutely convergent series [2]
The connection between the above-defined Riemann zeta function and prime numbers was discovered by Euler, i.e., the famous Euler product
where
p runs over the prime numbers.
Riemann showed in his paper in 1859 how to extend the zeta function to the whole complex plane
by analytic continuation, i.e.
where
is the symbol adopted by Riemann to represent the contour integral from
to
around a domain which includes the value 0 but no other point of discontinuity of the integrand in its interior.
Or equivalently,
where
is the Jaccobi theta function,
is the Gamma function in the following Weierstrass expression
where
is the Euler-Mascheroni constant.
As shown by Riemann,
extends to
as a meromorphic function with only a simple pole at
, with residue 1, and satisfies the following functional equation
The Riemann zeta function has zeros at the negative even integers: , , , , ⋯ and one refers to them as the trivial zeros. The other zeros of are the complex numbers, i.e., non-trivial zeros [2].
In 1896, Hadamard [4] and Poussin [5] independently proved that no zeros could lie on the line , together with the functional equation and the fact that there are no zeros with real part greater than 1, this showed that all non-trivial zeros must lie in the interior of the critical strip. This was a key step in their first proofs of the famous Prime Number Theorem.
Later on, Hardy (1914) [6], Hardy and Littlewood (1921) [7] showed that there are infinitely many zeros on the critical line , which was an astonishing result at that time.
To give a summary of the related research on the RH, we have the following results on the properties of the non-trivial zeros of [4–9].
Lemma 1: Non-trivial zeroes of , noted as , have the following properties
1) The number of non-trivial zeroes is infinity;
2) ;
3) ;
4) are all non-trivial zeroes.
As further study, a completed zeta function
is defined as
It is well-known that is an entire function of order 1. This implies is analytic, and can be expressed as infinite polynomial, in the whole complex plane .
In addition, replacing
s with
in Eq.(6), and combining Eq.(5), we obtain the following functional equation
Considering the definition of , and recalling Eq.(4), the trivial zeros of are canceled by the poles of . The zero of and the pole of cancel; the zero and the pole of cancel [9,10]. Thus, all the zeros of are exactly the nontrivial zeros of . Then we have the following Lemma 2.
Lemma 2: The zeros of coincide with the non-trivial zeros of .
Accordingly, the following two statements of the RH are equivalent.
Statement 1: All the non-trivial zeros of have real part equal to .
Statement 2: All the zeros of have real part equal to .
To prove the RH, a natural thinking is to estimate the numbers of non-trivial zeros of inside or outside some certain areas according to Argument Principle. Along this train of thought, there are many research works. Let denote the number of non-trivial zeros of inside the rectangle: , and let denote the number of non-trivial zeros of on the line . Selberg proved that there exist positive constants c and , such that [11], later on, Levinson proved that [12], Lou and Yao proved that [13], Conrey proved that [14], Bui, Conrey and Young proved that [15], Feng proved that [16], Wu proved that [17].
On the other hand, many non-trivial zeros have been calculated by hand or by computer programs. Among others, Riemann found the first three non-trivial zeros [18]. Gram found the first 15 zeros based on Euler-Maclaurin summation [19]. Titchmarsh calculated the 138th to 195th zeros using the Riemann-Siegel formula [20,21]. Here are the first three (pairs of) non-trivial zeros: .
The idea of this paper is originated from Euler’s work on proving the following famous equality
This interesting result is deduced by comparing the like terms of two types of infinite expressions, i.e., infinite polynomial and infinite product, as shown in the following
Then the author of this paper conjectured that
should be factored into
or something like that, which was verified by paring
and
in the Hadamard product of
, i.e.
The Hadamard product of
as shown in Eq.(10) was first proposed by Riemann, however, it was Hadamard who showed the validity of this infinite product expansion [22].
where
,
runs over all the non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function
, or in another word,
runs over all the zeros of the completed zeta function
.
Hadamard pointed out that to ensure the absolute convergence of the infinite product expansion,
and
are paired. Later in
Section 3, we will show that
and
can also be paired to ensure the absolute convergence of the infinite product expansion.
2. Lemmas
In this section, we first explain the concept of the real multiplicity of a zero of . And then we give four lemmas (Lemma 3 to Lemma 6) to support the proof of the RH, among which Lemma 3 is the key lemma.
Multiple zeros of : As shown in
Figure 1, the multiple zeros of
are defined in terms of the quadruplet, i.e.,
.
It should be noticed that zeros and their real multiplicities of
are objective existence, but the expression of the corresponding factors of
are optional to some extent. For example, the multiple zeros as shown in
Figure 1 have two different expressions as factors of
, respectively, i.e.,
, or
with
.
To exclude the latter expression, we stipulate that zero (with its real multiplicity ) related factors of take the unique form of .
Remark: Although the multiplicity of zero is unknown, it is an objective existence, unique, and unchangeable. This is the key point in the proofs of Lemma 3, Lemma 4, and Lemma 5.
Lemma 3: Given two infinite products
and
where
s is a complex variable,
and
are the complex conjugate zeros of
,
and
are real numbers,
are the
real multiplicities of
,
are in order of increasing
, i.e.,
,
.
Then we have
where
is the equivalent sign.
Proof: First of all, we have the following fact:
where
is a natural number,
and
are real numbers.
Next, the proof is based on Transfinite Induction.
According to Eq.(14),
is an obvious fact as the
Base Case, i.e.,
To be more convincing, let’s further check
, i.e.,
which is also an obvious fact according to Lemma 4.
As the Successor Case, we need to prove .
Thus the Successor Case is true, i.e., .
Next, we prove that holds, by considering well-ordered ordinal set A indexing the family of statements , with the ordering that for all natural numbers n, is the first limit ordinal.
It is well-known that .
To prove that holds, it suffices to prove the Limit Case, i.e., .
Thus the Limit Case is true, i.e., .
Hence, we conclude by Transfinite Induction that
holds, i.e.,
i.e.,
That completes the proof of Lemma 3.
Lemma 4: Given
where
s is a complex variable,
and
are real numbers,
are natural numbers, denoting the real multiplicities of
and
, respectively,
.
Proof: Eq.(22) has an obvious solution, i.e.,
Other solutions can be obtained by Lemma 6, and excluding the above obvious solution, i.e., we can find other solutions of Eq.(22) by considering , where "gcd" stands for: greatest common divisor.
Then from Eq.(22), and suppose
without loss of generality, we have
i.e.,
where
is the "divisible" sign.
By Lemma 6, and the fact
, it follows that
By comparing like terms of both sides of Eq.(28), it follows that . Obviously there is no need to further solve Eq.(25) to get the final solutions, because the solution of Eq.(28), means that the quadruplet zeros is the duplicate of , which contradicts the definition of real multiplicities in Eq.(22).
Therefore, the obvious solution Eq.(24) is the only solution of Eq.(22), i.e.
Further, excluding the contradictory situation (violating the definition of the real multiplicities of zeros) in Eq.(29), i.e., , then we know that Eq.(23) holds.
That completes the proof of Lemma 4.
Similarly, we have the following extended result of Lemma 4 without proof details.
Lemma 5: Given
where
s is a complex variable,
, and
are real numbers,
are natural numbers, denoting the real multiplicities of
,
.
Lemma 6: Let F be a field, . If divides the product , but and are relatively prime, i.e., , then divides .
Remark: The content of Lemma 6 can be found in many textbooks of Linear Algebra or Advanced Algebra. It is the foundation to find other possible solutions in addition to the obvious solution in Lemma 4 and Lemma 5.
3. A Proof of the RH
This section is planned to present a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis. We first prove that Statement 2 of the RH is true, and then by Lemma 2, Statement 1 of the RH is also true. To be brief, to prove the Riemann Hypothesis, it suffices to show that in the new expression of as shown in Eq. (30).
Proof of the RH: The details are delivered in three steps as follows.
Step 1: It is well-known that all the zeros of
always come in complex conjugate pairs. Then by pairing
and
in the Hadamard product as shown in Eq.(10), we have
where
.
The absolute convergence of the infinite product in Eq.(30) in the form
depends on the convergence of infinite series
, or equivalently,
, which is an obvious fact according to Theorem 2 in
Section 2, Chapter IV of Ref.[23], as shown in the following.
Theorem 2.[23] The function is an entire function of order one that has infinitely many zeros such that . The series diverges, but the series converges for any . The zeros of are the nontrivial zeros of .
Remark: In the Theorem 2 of Ref.[23], is identical to in this paper, both and mean the real part of any complex number.
Further, considering the absolute convergence of
we have the following new expression of
by putting all the
related multiple factors (zeros) together in the above Eq.(32)
where
are the real multiplicities of
,
i are natural numbers from 1 to infinity.
Step 2: Replacing
s with
in Eq.(33), we obtain the infinite product expression of
, i.e.,
Remark: According to the new expressions of , i.e., Eq.(33) and Eq.(34), we conclude that all and related multiple zeros, i.e., are included in the group of factors, , respectively, or in another word, before or after the group of factors of , there are no and related multiple zeros.
Actually, with such arrangement of and related multiple factors of , we "assigned" a reason for excluding, in the proofs of Lemma 3, Lemma 5, and Lemma 6, the "abnormal" situation, i.e., the successor factor and its predecessor factor represent the same quadruplet of zeros.
Step 3: According to the functional equation
, and considering Eq.(33) and Eq.(34), we have
which is equivalent to
And that real numbers can be certainly arranged in order of increasing , i.e., .
Then, according to Lemma 3, Eq.(36) is equivalent to
Thus, we conclude that all the zeros of the completed zeta function have real part equal to , i.e., Statement 2 of the RH is true. According to Lemma 2, Statement 1 of the RH is also true, i.e., all the non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function have real part equal to .
That completes the proof of the RH.
Remark: According to Lemma 1, there are 2 pairs of complex zeros of simultaneously, i.e., . With the proof of the RH, these 2 pairs of zeros are actually only one pair, because . Thus Lemma 1 could be modified more precisely as follows.
Lemma 1*: Non-trivial zeroes of , noted as , have the following properties
1) The number of non-trivial zeroes is infinity;
2) ;
3) ;
4) are all non-trivial zeroes.
4. Conclusions
This paper presents a proof of the RH based on a new expression of
, i.e.,
where
and
are the complex conjugate zeros of
,
and
are real numbers,
are the real multiplicities of
,
are in order of increasing
, i.e.,
,
.
The proof is conducted according to Transfinite Induction, and the key-point is the use of "real multiplicities" of the zeros of
. Obviously, the real multiplicity of a zero of
is an objective existence, unique, and unchangeable. As a result, the functional equation
finally leads to
Acknowledgments
The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the help received from Prof. Tianguang Chu (Peking University), Prof. Guangda Hu (Shanghai University), Prof. Jiwei Liu (University of Science and Technology Beijing) while preparing this article.
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