Approximation of 1/x by exponential sums in [1, {infty})

^** Email: braess{at}num.rub.de^*** Email: wh{at}mis.mpg.de Approximations of 1/x by sums of exponentials are well studiedfor finite intervals. Here the error decreases like (exp(–ck))with the order k of the exponential sum. In this paper we investigateapproximations of 1/x in the interval [1, ). We prove estimatesof the error by and confirm this asymptotic estimate by numerical results. Numericalresults lead to the conjecture that the constant in the exponentequals .