Hyper4 Iterated Exponential Function

Addition

 
a+b

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
3 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
4 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
6 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

By antidiagonals, this table is sequence A3056.

The rows and columns are all A0027 (omitting one or more initial terms).

The main diagonal is A5843.

The superdiagonal and subdiagonal are both A5408.

Multiplication

 
a×b

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
3 0 3 6 9 12 15 18
4 0 4 8 12 16 20 24
5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
6 0 6 12 18 24 30 36

By antidiagonals, this table is sequence A4247.

The rows are A0004, A0027, A5843, A8585, A8586, A008587, A8588, etc.

Each column is the same as the corresponding row.

The main diagonal is A0290.

The superdiagonal and subdiagonal are both A2378.

Exponentiation

 
ab

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 1 2 4 8 16 32 64
3 1 3 9 27 81 243 729
4 1 4 16 64 2561024 4096
5 1 5 25 125 625312515625
6 1 6 36 2161296777646656

By antidiagonals, this table is sequence A3992.

The rows are A0007, A0012, A0079, A0244, A0302, A0351, A0400, etc.

The columns are A0012, A0027, A0290, A0578, A0583, A0584, A1014, etc.

The main diagonal is A0312.

The superdiagonal is A7778 and the subdiagonal is A0169.

Lower Hyper4 Function

There are two ways to extend the series to a fourth operator beyond exponentiation, depending on how you group the terms. Using "^^" to represent the new operation, we can have either:


a^^b = ((a^a)^a)^...^a

or:


a^^b = a^...^(a^(a^a))

Both versions produce the same answer for a^^1 and a^^2 (a and aa respectively) but they differ beyond that. The first one produces smaller values so I call it the "lower hyper4 operator"; the other is the "higher" hyper4 operator. To distinguish between the two I use ab and ab respectively.

Here is a table of the lower hyper4 function for arguments from 0 to 6:

 
ab

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 √2 2 4 16 256 65536 4294967296
3 3√3 3 27 19683 7625597484987 4.434265×1038 8.718964×10115
4 √2 4 256 4294967296 3.402824×1038 1.340781×10154 3.231701×10616
5 5√5 5 3125 2.980232×1017 2.350989×1087 7.182121×10436 1.911013×102184
6 6√6 6 466561.031442×1028 1.204121×10168 3.048039×101008 8.019051×106050

By antidiagonals, this table is sequence A171881 (more terms here; not yet in OEIS, but see here).

The first row is not in OEIS; second is A0012. Ignoring the 0 column, the next four rows are A1146, A55777, A137840, and A137841. The following rows are not in OEIS.

The first column is not an integer sequence. The next three columns are A0027, A0312, and A2489; the following columns are not in OEIS.

The main diagonal (without the initial term) is A89210.

The superdiagonal is A2488, and the subdiagonal is not in OEIS.

ab can be generalized easily to real and even complex arguments through the identity ab=aa(b-1).

Higher Hyper4 Function

 
ab

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 1 2 4 16 65536 2.003530×1019728 106.0312×1019727
3 1 3 27 7625597484987 1.26×103638334640024 106.0×103638334640023 10106.0×103638334640023
4 1 4 256 1.340781×10154 108.0723×10153 10108.0723×10153 3 PT 8.0723×10153
5 1 5 3125 1.911013×102184 101.335740×102184 10101.3357×102184 3 PT 1.3357×102184
6 1 6 46656 2.659120×1036305 102.0692×1036305 10102.0692×1036305 3 PT 2.0692×1036305

By antidiagonals, this table is sequence A171882 (more terms here; not yet in OEIS, but see here).

First four rows are A0035, A0012, A14221, and A14222; following rows are not in OEIS.

First four columns are A0012, A0027, A0312, and A002488; following columns are not in OEIS.

The higher hyper4 operator cannot be extended in any obvious and self-consistent way to the reals (to compute, for example, {pi}e). This issue is discussed at length here, with possible solutions.



See Also

The hyper4 function is also discussed extensively on my large numbers page.



A171881: 0, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4, 1, 1, 4, 27, 16, 1, 1, 5, 256, 19683, 256, 1, 1, 6, 3125, 4294967296, 7625597484987, 65536, 1, 1, 7, 46656, 298023223876953125, 340282366920938463463374607431768211456, 443426488243037769948249630619149892803, 4294967296, 1, 1, 8, 823543, ...

A171882: 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1, 3, 4, 1, 1, 1, 4, 27, 16, 1, 0, 1, 5, 256, 7625597484987, 65536, 1, 1, 1, 6, 3125, 13407807929942597099574024998205846127479365820592393377723561443721764030073546976801874298166903427690031858186486050853753882811946569946433649006084096, (next term is 3^7625597484987~=1.26*10^3638334640024), ...


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