AN ANALYSIS OF THE LANCZOS GAMMA APPROXIMATION

Abstract

This thesis is an analysis of C . Lanczos' approximation of the classical gamma function Γ(z + 1) as given in his 1964 paper "A Precision Approximation of the Gamma Function". The purposes of this study are: (i) to explain the details of Lanczos' paper, including proof's of all claims made by the author; (ii) to address the question of how best to implement the approximation method in practice; and (iii) to generalize the methods used in the derivation of the approximation. [the rest of the abstract can be found in the attached PDF file]