Gamma function

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This article/section deals with mathematical concepts appropriate for late high school or early college.

The Gamma funciton is defined as

$\Gamma (z)=\int _{0}^{\infty }t^{z-1}e^{-t}dt$

Relations and values

Factorial

Using integration by parts,

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Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle = \left[t^{z-1}(-e^{-t}) \right]_0^{\infty}- \int_{0}^{\infty}(z-1)t^{(z-2)}(-e^{-t})dt.}

At Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t=0} , Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t^{z-1}(-e^{-t})} goes to 0. Using L'Hopital's rule, it's easy to show that $\lim _{t\to \infty }{\frac {t^{z-1}}{e^{t}}}=0$.

So,

$=(z-1)\int _{0}^{\infty }t^{(z-1)-1}e^{-t}dt$

$=(z-1)\Gamma (z-1).$

Thus,

$\Gamma (z)=(z-1)\Gamma (z-1).$

Using this, and the fact that $\Gamma (1)=1$, then we can get the factorial function. For $n$ a positive integer,

$\Gamma (n)=(n-1)!.$

z=1/2

For z=1/2,

$\Gamma (1/2)=\int _{0}^{\infty }t^{-1/2}e^{-t}dt$

Substituting $x=t^{1/2}$,

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Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle =2 \int_{0}^{\infty} e^{-x^2}dx }

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where in the last line we used the fact that Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle e^{-x^2}} is an even function. The integral is called the Gaussian integral and has a well known value of Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \sqrt\pi} .

Thus,

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \Gamma(1/2) = \sqrt\pi. }