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The gamma function is an important special function in mathematics. Its particular values can be expressed in closed form for integer and half-integer arguments, but no simple expressions are known for the values at rational points in general.
The gamma function then is defined in the complex plane as the analytic continuation of this integral function: it is a meromorphic function which is holomorphic except at zero and the negative integers, where it has simple poles. The gamma function has no zeros, so the reciprocal gamma function 1 / Γ(z) is an entire function.
The gamma distribution is a two-parameter exponential family with natural parameters α − 1 and −1/θ (equivalently, α − 1 and −λ), and natural statistics X and ln X. If the shape parameter α is held fixed, the resulting one-parameter family of distributions is a natural exponential family .
Repeated application of the recurrence relation for the lower incomplete gamma function leads to the power series expansion: [2] (,) = = (+) (+) = = (+ +). Given the rapid growth in absolute value of Γ(z + k) when k → ∞, and the fact that the reciprocal of Γ(z) is an entire function, the coefficients in the rightmost sum are well-defined, and locally the sum converges uniformly for all ...
Plot of 1 / Γ(x) along the real axis Reciprocal gamma function 1 / Γ(z) in the complex plane, plotted using domain coloring. In mathematics, the reciprocal gamma function is the function = (), where Γ(z) denotes the gamma function.
Thus computing the gamma function becomes a matter of evaluating only a small number of elementary functions and multiplying by stored constants. The Lanczos approximation was popularized by Numerical Recipes , according to which computing the gamma function becomes "not much more difficult than other built-in functions that we take for granted ...
The Gamma function can be defined for any complex value in the plane if we evaluate the integral along the Hankel contour. The Hankel contour is especially useful for expressing the Gamma function for any complex value because the end points of the contour vanish, and thus allows the fundamental property of the Gamma function to be satisfied ...
In q-analog theory, the -gamma function, or basic gamma function, is a generalization of the ordinary gamma function closely related to the double gamma function. It was introduced by Jackson (1905) .