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Third Approach. A coauthor of the current article In an increasingly computational world, an ex-
is at least in part responsible for the following brief plicit/implicit dichotomy is occasionally useful,
definition from a recent mathematics dictionary but not very frequently. Often we will prefer com-
[17]: putationally the numerical implicit value of an
algebraic number to its explicit tower of radicals,
closed form n. an expression for a given and it seems increasingly perverse to distinguish
function or quantity, especially an integral, the root of 2x5 10x + 5 from that of 2x4 10x + 5
in terms of known and well understood or to prefer arctan( /7) to arctan(1). We illustrate
quantities, such as the evaluation of these issues further in Examples 7, 9, and 14.
Z
We would prefer to view all values of classical
exp(x2 ) dx
special functions of mathematical physics [54] at
algebraic arguments as being closed forms. Again
as .
there is no generally accepted class of special
Collins Dictionary functions, but most practitioners would agree that
And of course one cares more for a closed form the solutions to the classical second-order algebraic
when the object under study is important, such as differential equations (linear or, say, Painlev) are
when it engages the normal distribution as above. included. But so are various hypertranscendental
With that selection recorded, let us turn to some functions, such as , B, and , which do not arise
more formal proposals. in that way.2
Hence, we do not wish to accept any definition
Fourth Approach. Various notions of elementary of special function which relies on the underlying
numbers have been proposed. functions satisfying natural differential equations.
Definition [31]. A subfield F of C is closed The class must be extensible; new special functions
under exp and log if (1) exp(x) F for all are always being discovered.
x F and (2) log(x) F for all nonzero A recent American Mathematical Monthly re-
x F, where log is the branch of the view3 of [47] says:
natural logarithm function such that <
2
Im(log x) for all x. The field E of EL Of course, a value of a hypertranscendental function
at algebraic argument may be very well behaved; see
numbers is the intersection of all subfields
Example 4.
of C that are closed under exp and log. 3
Available at http://www.maa.org/maa%20reviews/
Tim Chow 4221.html.
and for z = 1/2 the hypergeometric series con- We are not claiming that hyperclosure is any
verges absolutely, with kind of final definition for closed forms, but we
do believe that any defining paradigm for closed
1 7 1 2
Li3 = (3) + log3 2 log 2. forms must include this ring of hyperclosure H.
2 8 6 12
One way to reach further is to define a ring of
Continuation values at z = 2 on the branch cut can superclosure as the closure
be inferred as
S := hHH i,+ .
7 2
lim+ Li3 (2 i) = (3) + log 2 i log 2,
0 16 8 4 This ring contains numbers such as
so both complex numbers on the right here are 1
el-
e + e , ,
ements of X. The quadralogarithmic value Li4 21 (3)(5)
is thought not to be similarly decomposable but and of course a vast collection of numbers that may
likewise belongs to X. not belong to H itself. If we say that an element of
d2 Qk
where (in the last line) uk = i=1 ti .
(13) r n1 = n ,
dr 2 Needless to say, evaluating these multidimen-
with boundary conditions (0) = 0, 0 (0) = 1, and sional integrals to high precision presents a daunt-
positive real constant n, all of this giving rise to ing computational challenge. Fortunately, in the
a unique trajectory n (r ) on r [0, ). (Some au- first case, the Cn integrals can be written as one-
thors invoke the substitution (r ) := r (r ) to get dimensional integrals:
an equivalent ODE for temperature ; see [30].) The
2n
Z
beautiful thing is, where this pressure trajectory Cn = pK0n (p) dp,
n! 0
crosses zero for positive radius r is supposed to
be the star radius ; call that zero zn . where K0 is the modified Bessel function. After com-
Amazingly, the Lane-Emden equation has puting Cn to 1000-digit accuracy for various n, we
known exact solutions for n = 0, 1, 5, the pressure were able to identify the first few instances of Cn
1 1 1
+ 5)z 6 xy 3 y 2 + 1 x2 4(y + 1)x 3 z 5 y 2 4y(y + 1)x3 + 5 y 2 + 1 x2 3 + log 2 + 3 .
4 24 2
+4(y + 1)x + 1) z 4 + y y 2 x3 4y(y + 1)x2 3 y 2 + 1 x 4(y + 1) z 3