Applications arithmétiques de l'interpolation lagrangienne

Abstract

Newton's polynomial interpolation was applied in many situations in number theory, for example, to prove Polya's famous theorem on the growth of arithmetic entire function or the transcendency of eπ by Gel'fond. In this paper, we study certain arithmetic applications of the rational interpolation defined by René Lagrange in 1935, which was never done before. More precisely, we obtain new proofs of the irrationality of the numbers log(2) and ζ(3). Furthermore, we provide a simultaneous generalization of Newton and Lagrange's interpolations, which enables us to get the irrationality of ζ(2). © 2009 World Scientific Publishing Company.