Evaluating negative infinite tetration: $\lim\limits_{n\to-\infty}\,^n x=\lim_{n\to\infty}\underbrace{\log_x\left(…\log_x(0)\right)}_n=\,^{-\infty} x$

146 Views Asked by At

One can learn that for a power tower of height $n$:

$$y=n\big\{x^{x^{x^…}}=\,^nx\implies \log_x(y)=\boxed{\log_x(\,^nx)=\,^{n-1}x}$$

giving a recursive relation. One might see that $n<-2$ cases are undefined, but using the extended real numbers or limits, one can actually use the principal branch for the logarithm function for $x\ne0$:

$$\log_x(\,^1x)=\frac{\ln(\,^1 x)}{\ln(x)}=\,^{1-1}x=\,^0x=1\implies \frac{\ln(1)}{\ln(x)}=\,^{0-1}x=\,^{-1}x =0$$

Here is when problems occur. We can define $\ln(-\infty)=\infty$ or $\ln(-\infty)=\ln(-1)+\ln(\infty)=\pi i+\infty$, but to stick with real values, like in

Does this limit exist or is undefined $$\lim_{x\to -\infty}\ln\left(\frac{x^2+1}{x-3}\right)=\ln(-\infty)=\infty,$$

let us consider the simpler version of $\boxed{\ln(-\infty)=\infty}$. Note that I will not simplify the logarithms into the infinity to keep the domain as large as possible:

$$\frac{\ln(\,^{-1} x)}{\ln(x)}=\frac{\ln(0)}{\ln(x)}=\,^{{-1}-1}x=\,^{-2}x =-\frac{\infty}{\ln(x)}\\\implies \frac{\ln(\,^{-2} x)}{\ln(x)}= \frac{\ln\left(\frac{-\infty}{\ln(x)}\right)}{\ln(x)}=\,^{{-2}-1}x=\,^{-3}x = \frac{\ln\left(\frac{-\infty}{\ln(x)}\right)}{\ln(x)} = \frac{\infty-\ln(\ln(x))}{\ln(x)}\\\implies \frac{\ln(\,^{-3} x)}{\ln(x)}=\frac{\ln\left(\frac{\infty-\ln(\ln(x))}{\ln(x)}\right)}{\ln(x)}=\,^{{-3}-1}x=\,^{-4}x = \frac{\ln\left(\frac{\infty-\ln(\ln(x))}{\ln(x)}\right)}{\ln(x)}=\log_x\left(\infty-\ln(\ln(x))\right)-\log_x(\ln(x)) $$

and so on. This creates a couple questions using our aforementioned assumptions and these Wolfram Functions conventions. The question here is what would happen if we calculated:

$$\lim_{n\to-\infty}\,^n x=\lim_{n\to\infty}\underbrace{\log_x\left(…\log_x(0)\right)}_n=\,^{-\infty} x$$ which looks like a W-Lambert function: $$-\frac{\text W_{-1}(-\ln(x))}{\ln(x)}= \lim_{n\to\infty}\underbrace{\log_x\left(…\log_x(e)\right)}_n $$ using the same process and the recursive definition of:

$$\log_x(\,^nx)=\frac{\ln(\,^nx)}{\ln(x)}=\,^{n-1}x $$ Also, what is the range of this new experimental $\ \,^{-\infty} x\ $ function? I have listed the conventions that will be used, so there should be no confusion. Please correct me and give me feedback!

2

There are 2 best solutions below

2
On

(Not an answer, only an extension of my 2.nd comment)

I show some iterates of the $\log()$ with base=$e$. Using my proposed definition for the notation we see some initial values $z_0$ between $0$ and $1$ and their $h$'th iterates $z_h$. I think it is easily extrapolatable, where the $h$'th iterates tend to, when $z_0$ approaches either the initial value $0$ (or $1$, which is implied by your notation). This is a q&d-computation with Pari/GP with internal precision of 200 dec digits.

               z_0                 z_0                z_0               z_0               z_0               z_0               z_0               z_0               z_0               z_0               z_0               z_0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                          
z_0           5.000E-26         5.000E-17   0.0000000005000        0.00005000            0.05000            0.5000  |            0.5000           0.9500             1.000             1.000             1.000             1.000  
z_1              -58.26            -37.53            -21.42            -9.903             -2.996           -0.6931  |           -0.6931         -0.05129       -0.00005000  -0.0000000005000        -5.000E-17        -5.000E-26  
z_2       4.065+3.142*I     3.625+3.142*I     3.064+3.142*I     2.293+3.142*I      1.097+3.142*I   -0.3665+3.142*I  |   -0.3665+3.142*I   -2.970+3.142*I    -9.903+3.142*I    -21.42+3.142*I    -37.53+3.142*I    -58.26+3.142*I  
z_3      1.637+0.6580*I    1.568+0.7140*I    1.479+0.7979*I    1.358+0.9403*I      1.202+1.235*I     1.151+1.687*I  |     1.151+1.687*I    1.464+2.328*I     2.341+2.834*I     3.075+2.996*I     3.629+3.058*I     4.066+3.088*I  
z_4     0.5675+0.3823*I   0.5440+0.4273*I   0.5191+0.4947*I   0.5020+0.6055*I    0.5443+0.7987*I   0.7142+0.9718*I  |   0.7142+0.9718*I    1.012+1.009*I    1.302+0.8805*I    1.457+0.7724*I    1.557+0.7003*I    1.630+0.6495*I  
z_5    -0.3794+0.5928*I  -0.3685+0.6658*I  -0.3326+0.7614*I  -0.2401+0.8786*I  -0.03400+0.9726*I   0.1873+0.9371*I  |   0.1873+0.9371*I  0.3571+0.7843*I   0.4521+0.5947*I   0.5002+0.4875*I   0.5350+0.4226*I   0.5624+0.3791*I  
z_6     -0.3512+2.140*I   -0.2732+2.076*I   -0.1853+1.983*I  -0.09336+1.838*I   -0.02715+1.606*I  -0.04541+1.373*I  |  -0.04541+1.373*I  -0.1488+1.144*I  -0.2917+0.9207*I  -0.3589+0.7725*I  -0.3831+0.6686*I  -0.3882+0.5930*I  
z_7      0.7742+1.733*I    0.7391+1.702*I    0.6888+1.664*I    0.6097+1.622*I     0.4737+1.588*I    0.3179+1.604*I  |    0.3179+1.604*I   0.1425+1.700*I  -0.03476+1.878*I   -0.1604+2.006*I   -0.2606+2.091*I   -0.3442+2.150*I  
z_8      0.6411+1.151*I    0.6180+1.161*I    0.5883+1.178*I    0.5495+1.211*I     0.5049+1.281*I    0.4917+1.375*I  |    0.4917+1.375*I   0.5342+1.487*I    0.6301+1.589*I    0.6992+1.651*I    0.7454+1.695*I    0.7783+1.729*I  
z_9      0.2756+1.063*I    0.2740+1.082*I    0.2754+1.108*I    0.2852+1.145*I     0.3197+1.195*I    0.3787+1.227*I  |    0.3787+1.227*I   0.4576+1.226*I    0.5363+1.193*I    0.5837+1.170*I    0.6160+1.156*I    0.6400+1.148*I  
                 .                 .                 .                 .                  .                 .                    .                .                 .                 .                 .                 .   
                 .                 .                 .                 .                  .                 .                    .                .                 .                 .                 .                 .   
                 .                 .                 .                 .                  .                 .                    .                .                 .                 .                 .                 .   
z_oo        <fixpoint>        <fixpoint>        <fixpoint>        <fixpoint>         <fixpoint>        <fixpoint>   |       <fixpoint>       <fixpoint>        <fixpoint>        <fixpoint>        <fixpoint>        <fixpoint>

Below there is a plot of the iterates $z_h = \log°^h(z_0)$ of the line $z_0 \in \varepsilon \ldots 1-\varepsilon$
The lines $z_0 , z_1=\log°^1(z_0),z_2 =\log°^2(z_0)$ are not displayed. The line for $z_3$ is the red curve in the right half looking roughly like a $\sqrt x $ curve, the line for $z_4$ is the green curve most neighboured at the $z_3$ curve and the positive real axis, whose both ends tend to $+ \infty + 0 \pi î$.
This plot should work as a suggestion how -if at all- that infinite iteration could be defined most meaningfully. image

Additional remark: the curves could not have been drawn out to the values $x \approx 9$ by the iteration of logarithms alone; two times iterated back we had a real value of $\exp(\exp(9.4)) \approx 2.1 E 4750$ which gives then a limit for $z_0$ near $0$ which I wouldn't have used from the beginning . But there is a functional relation between the real- and the imaginary value in the $z_3$ curve which allows to compute (and plot) the curve to arbitrary real-argument larger than this roughly 1.2-value. From that the iterated logarithms for a far wider interval of the $z_3$ can be computed. (Sorry, don't have that functional relation at hand at the moment, but was simply derived from the trigonometric formula for the complex logarithm).

1
On

With some rough experimentation, one has the following result for the “experimental $-\infty$ tetration” using this computation and the sign function:

$$\log_{a+bi}\left(\log_{a+bi}\left(\log_{a+bi}\left(0\right)\right)\right)=\frac{\infty}{\text{sgn}(\ln(a+bi))}$$

It does not matter if you define $\ln(-\infty)=\infty+\pi i$ or $\ln(-\infty)=\infty$, for any amount $n>2$ logarithms nestings, you get the following:

$$\,^{-\infty}x\mathop=^\text{def}\lim_{n\to\infty}\underbrace{\log_x\left(…\log_x(0)\right)}_n= \frac{\infty}{\text{sgn}(\ln(x))}=\frac{\sqrt{\text{Re}^2(\ln(x))+\text{Im}^2(\ln(x))}}{\ln(x)}\infty$$

You may think that this is useless because it diverges, but the rate of divergence is proportional and is called the Directed Infinity function:

$$\text{DirectedInfinity}(x)\mathop=^\text{def} \infty x\implies \,^{-\infty}x = \text{DirectedInfinity}\left(\frac{1}{\text{sgn}(\ln(x))}\right) $$

which is a complex number times infinity.

One property of $\infty x$ is that:

$$\infty x=\infty \text{sgn}(x)\implies \infty\text{sgn}\left(\frac{1}{\text{sgn}(\ln(x))}\right)= \frac{\infty}{\text{sgn}(\ln(x))} $$

Here is a complex plot of $$\frac{1}{\text{sgn}(\ln(x+yi))} :$$ enter image description here

Here are some values of this function:

$$\frac{\infty}{\text{sgn}(\ln(2))}=\infty$$

$$\frac{\infty}{\text{sgn}(\ln(-2))}=\frac{\sqrt{\pi^2+\ln^2(2)}}{\ln(2)+\pi i}\infty$$

$$\frac{\infty}{\text{sgn}(\ln(i))}=-\infty i$$

$$\frac{\infty}{\text{sgn}(\ln(2))}=\infty$$

$$\frac{\infty}{\text{sgn}(\ln(2-3i))}=\frac{i\sqrt{\ln^2(13)+4\tan^{-1}\left(\frac32\right)^2}}{2\tan^{-1}\left(\frac32\right)+i\ln(13)}\infty$$

Please correct me and give me feedback!