2
$\begingroup$

I was thinking about this series: $$ \sum_{k=1}^{\infty}\left( \frac{1}{k}\right)^k$$ I calculated the limit $$\lim_{k \rightarrow \infty} \left(\frac{1}{k}\right)^k$$ and the result was $0$, so i got the necessary condition, but it's not sufficient. I can't think in other ways to prove this converges( altough i'm almost shure it does) and more important than this, calculate this sum. Thanks in advance.

  • 0
    Hint for convergence: For $k \ge 2$, we have $(1/k)^k \le (1/k)^2$.2017-01-11
  • 1
    It can be shown that the value of the sum is equal to $\int_0^1\frac{dx}{x^x}$ by rewriting $x^x=\exp(x\log x)$, expanding the exponential function as a power series and integrating termwise, but I doubt that there is a closed form for the value of the sum. It is approximately equal to 1.29129.2017-01-11

1 Answers 1

2

First of all let's consider sum of $\displaystyle \frac{\pi^2}{6} = \sum_{k = 1}^{\infty}\frac{1}{k^2} > \sum_{k = 1}^{\infty}\frac{1}{k^k}$, so by comparasion test this serie is converge.

What about sum result ? It's better to read this Sophomore's dream.