Stirling Numbers and Inverse Factorial Series

Abstract

We study inverse factorial series and their relation to Stirling numbers of the first kind. We prove a special representation of the polylogarithm function in terms of series with such numbers. Using various identities for Stirling numbers of the first kind we construct a number of expansions of functions in terms of inverse factorial series where the coefficients are special numbers. These results are used to prove/reprove the asymptotic expansion of some classical functions. We also prove a binomial formula involving inverse factorials.