Existence of Logarithm

Theorem

Let $b, y \in \R$ such that $b > 1$ and $y > 0$.

Then there exists a unique real $x \in \R$ such that $b^x = y$.

This $x$ is called the logarithm of $y$ to the base $b$.

Also see the definition of a (general) logarithm.

Proof

We start by establishing a lemma:

Lemma 1

Let $t \in \R$ be such that $t > 1$, and let $n \in \N$ be such that $n > \dfrac {b - 1} {t - 1}$.

Then $b^{\frac 1 n} < t$.

Proof of Lemma 1

Because $b > 1$, we have that $b^{\frac 1 n} > 1$.

From Sum of Geometric Progression and this observation, we find that:

$\displaystyle \frac {\left({ b^{\frac 1 n} }\right)^n - 1} {b^{\frac 1 n} - 1} = \sum_{k = 0}^{n - 1} \; \left({ b^{\frac 1 n} }\right)^k > n$

Rewriting this inequality, we obtain:

$\displaystyle b - 1 > n \left({b^{\frac 1 n} - 1}\right)$

As $n > \dfrac {b - 1} {t - 1}$, this means that $t - 1 > b^{\frac 1 n} - 1$.

We conclude that $b^{\frac 1 n} < t$.

$\Box$

Now let $w \in \R$ be any number satisfying $b^w < y$.

Then $t = b^{-w}y > 1$, so we can apply the lemma.

It follows that for $n > \dfrac {b - 1} {t - 1}$, $b^{\frac 1 n} < b^{-w} y$, and thus $b^{w + \frac 1 n} < y$.

Similarly, when $b^w > y$ and $n > \dfrac {b - 1} {t - 1}$, we have $b^{w - \frac 1 n} > y$.

Next, let $W = \left\{{ w \in \R: b^w < y }\right\}$.

Let $x = \sup W$. The following lemma helps us to verify existence of $x$.

Lemma 2

For any real number $z>0$, we have $n \in \N$ such that $b^{-n} < z < b^n$.

Proof of Lemma 2

Observe that, as $z > 0$, $b^{-n} < z$ whenever $b^n > \dfrac 1 z$.

Therefore, it suffices to show that there is an $n \in \N$ such that $b^n > z$ exists.

By Sum of Geometric Progression, we obtain for any $n \in \N$:

$\displaystyle \left({b - 1}\right) \sum_{k = 0}^{n - 1} b^k = b^n - 1$

As $b> 1$, we obtain $n \left({b - 1}\right) < b^n - 1$.

This implies that any $n$ with $n \left({b - 1}\right) > z - 1$ has the desired property.

$\Box$

The lemma shows that $x$ is the supremum of a non-empty set with an upper bound, and therefore it exists.

We will now prove that $b^x = y$.

Suppose $b^x < y$.

We have seen that there exists an $n \in \N$ such that $b^{x + \frac 1 n} < y$, i.e. $x + \dfrac 1 n \in W$.

But this is impossible as $x = \sup W$. Thus $b^x \ge y$.

Now suppose $b^x > y$.

We have seen that there exists an $n \in \N$ such that $b^{x - \frac 1 n} > y$, i.e. $x - \dfrac 1 n \not \in W$.

As $x - \frac 1 n$ is not the supremum of $W$, we find a $w \in W$ such that:

$x - \dfrac 1 n < w < x$

But then we have, as $b > 1$:

$b^{x - \frac 1 n} - b^w = b^{x - \frac 1 n}\left({1 - b^{w - x + \frac 1 n}}\right) < 0$

This is contradicts our initial choice of $x - \dfrac 1 n$ outside $W$.

We conclude that $b^x = y$.

Lastly, suppose that $b^x = y = b^z$. Then we have:

$b^{z-x} = \dfrac {b^z} {b^x} = 1 = \dfrac {b^x} {b^z} = b^{x-z}$

We conclude that $x = z$.

$\blacksquare$