s14afc evaluates an approximation to the
th derivative of the psi function
given by
where
is complex provided
and
. If
,
is real and thus
is singular when
.
Note that
is also known as the
polygamma function. Specifically,
is often referred to as the
digamma function and
as the
trigamma function in the literature. Further details can be found in
Abramowitz and Stegun (1972).
s14afc is based on a modification of the method proposed by
Kölbig (1972).
Kölbig K S (1972) Programs for computing the logarithm of the gamma function, and the digamma function, for complex arguments Comp. Phys. Comm. 4 221–226
Empirical tests have shown that the maximum relative error is a loss of approximately two decimal places of precision.
None.