An analytic approach to the Riemann hypothesis

Abstract: In this work we consider an equation for the Riemann zeta-function in the critical half-strip. With the help of this equation we prove that finding non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta-function outside the critical line would be equivalent to the existence of complex numbers for which equation (5.1) in the paper holds. Such a condition is studied, and the attempt of proving the Riemann hypothesis is found to involve also the functional equation (6.26), where t is a real variable bigger than or equal to 1 and n is any natural number. The limiting behavior of the solutions as t approaches 1 is then studied in detail.