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On the sum of $k$-th powers in terms of earlier sums

Authors :
Miller, Steven J.
Treviño, Enrique
Publication Year :
2019
Publisher :
arXiv, 2019.

Abstract

For $k$ a positive integer let $S_k(n) = 1^k + 2^k + \cdots + n^k$, i.e., $S_k(n)$ is the sum of the first $k$-th powers. Faulhaber conjectured (later proved by Jacobi) that for $k$ odd, $S_k(n)$ could be written as a polynomial of $S_1(n)$; for example $S_3(n) = S_1(n)^2$. We extend this result and prove that for any $k$ there is a polynomial $g_k(x,y)$ such that $S_k(n) = g(S_1(n), S_2(n))$. The proof yields a recursive formula to evaluate $S_k(n)$ as a polynomial of $n$ that has roughly half the number of terms as the classical one.<br />Comment: Version 2.0, 5 pages

Details

Database :
OpenAIRE
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....4eba65865e73651a9bead78651a7bc50
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1912.07171