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I believe this is a variation of related questions. Define a falling exponent of a factorial $n!$ to be $1^{n!} \times 2^{n!-1} \times 3^{n!-2} \times \dots \times n!^1$. Thus for $n=3$ you get $1^6 * 2^5 * 3^4 * 5^2 * 6^1=24883200$.

  • One could solve by doing all the multiplication.

  • One could solve by adding the logs.

  • One could find an estimation similar to Stirling's for factorials.

    Do you think an accurate estimation formula can be found?

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  • $\begingroup$ Splendid, but I think it is still a start as long as you are dealing with reasonably sized n!. Would the estimate just be a product of all the Sirling estimates for each factorial <=n!? $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 18, 2016 at 21:43
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    $\begingroup$ I think you forgot a $4^3$ in there. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 18, 2016 at 21:46

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$$ \begin{align} 1^{n!} \times 2^{n!-1} \times \dots n!^{n!-(n!-1)} &= \frac{1^{n!}\times2^{n!}\dots n!^{n!}}{1\times 2^1 \times 3^2 \dots \times n!^{n!-1}} \\ &=(n!)!^{n!}\frac{1}{(n!)!\times\frac{(n!)!}{2!}.\frac{(n!)!}{3!}\dots\frac{(n!)!}{(n!-1)!}} \\ &=(n!)!^{n!}\frac{1!\times2!\times\dots\times(n!-1)!}{(n!)!^{n!-1}} \\ &=1!\times2!\times\dots\times(n!-1)!\times (n!)! \end{align} $$

For $n = 3$, it is $1! \times 2! \dots \times 6! = 2 \times 6 \times 24 \times 120 \times 720 = 24883200$

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice algebra work +1. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 18, 2016 at 21:38
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The formula is $\prod_{i=1}^{n!} i!$. This function is closely related to the superfactorial.

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WolframAlpha says that $\prod_{i=1}^{n!}i!=G(x!+2)$, where $G$ is the Barnes-G-function. We can use the asymptotic expansion of $G$ from its Wikipedia article with $z=n!+1$ to find an approximation for your product. The expansion goes on even further so you could make it more accurate if you wanted.

$$\small\prod_{i=1}^{n!}i!\sim\exp\left[\frac{1}{12}-\ln(A)+\frac{n!+1}{2}\ln(2\pi)+\left(\frac{(n!+1)^2}{2}-\frac{1}{12}\right)\ln(n!+1)-\frac{3}{4}(n!+1)^2\right]\quad *$$

I've shown its accuracy for a few values of $n$ in the following table.

$$\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|} \hline n & \text{Exact} & \text{Approximate} & \text{Relative Error}\\ \hline 3 & 2.488\times10^7 & 2.489\times10^7 & 4.02\times10^{-4} \\ \hline 4 & 1.174\times10^{243} & 1.174\times10^{243} & \approx0 \\ \hline 5 & 1.569\times10^{10\,526} & 1.569\times10^{10\,526} & \approx0 \\ \hline \end{array}$$

So there's a great approximation to your product.


* Where $A=1.28\ldots$ is the Glaisher–Kinkelin constant.


I also tried to make an approximation by adapting Stirling's approximation but it didn't go perfectly. I'll share it here for anyone else to use, if they can,

$$\begin{align} p=\mathrm{sf}(n!)&=\prod_{i=1}^{n!}i! \\ \ln(p)&=\sum_{i=1}^{n!}\ln(i!) \\ \sum_{i=1}^{n!}\left[i\ln\left(\frac{i}{e}\right)+1\right]\leq\ln(p)&\leq\sum_{i=1}^{n!}\left[(i+1)\ln\left(\frac{i+1}{e}\right)+1\right]\quad** \\ e^{n!+\sum_{i=1}^{n!}i\ln\left(\frac{i}{e}\right)}\leq p&\leq e^{n!+\sum_{i=1}^{n!}(i+1)\ln\left(\frac{i+1}{e}\right)} \\ e^{n!}\prod_{i=1}^{n!}e^{i\ln\left(\frac{i}{e}\right)}\leq p&\leq e^{n!}\prod_{i=1}^{n!}e^{(i+1)\ln\left(\frac{i+1}{e}\right)} \\ e^{n!}\prod_{i=1}^{n!}\left(\frac{i}{e}\right)^i\leq p&\leq e^{n!}\prod_{i=1}^{n!}\left(\frac{i+1}{e}\right)^{i+1} \\ \frac{e^{n!}}{e^1\cdot e^2\cdot\ldots \cdot e^{n!}}\prod_{i=1}^{n!}i^i\leq p&\leq \frac{e^{n!}}{e^2\cdot e^3\cdot\ldots \cdot e^{n!+1}}\prod_{i=1}^{n!}(i+1)^{i+1} \\ e^{n!-\frac{n!(n!+1)}{2}}H(n!)\leq p&\leq e^{n!-\frac{n!(n!+1)}{2}-1}H(n!+1)\quad*** \end{align}$$

We can take the geometric mean of these bounds to get an approximation for $p$. I tried it with an arithmetic mean but the bounds are so far apart that the arithmetic mean has roughly the same exponent as the upper bound,

$$ \begin{align} p&\approx H(n!)\left(e^{\frac{n!(1-n!)}{2}}e^{\frac{n!(1-n!)-1}{2}}(n!+1)^{n!+1}\right)^{1/2} \\&\approx H(n!)(n!+1)^\frac{n!+1}{2}\left(e^{n!(1-n!)-1/2}\right)^{1/2} \\&\approx H(n!)(n!+1)^\frac{n!+1}{2}e^\frac{2n!(1-n!)-1}{4} \end{align} $$

However, these steps could equally have been applied to the superfactorial, and replacing the superfactorial with the hyperfactorial isn't much better, so in a sense this work is redundant, though we could now try asymptotic approximations to $H(n)$. It's difficult to see how accurate this approximation is graphically, since neither curve fits easily onto a graph. Regardless, for $n=3,4,5$, the exact value of $p$ and its approximation are shown in the following table:

$$\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|} \hline n & \text{Exact} & \text{Approximate} & \text{Relative Error} & \text{Calculation} \\ \hline 3 & 2.488\times10^7 & 8.715\times10^8 & 34.0 & \text{http://bit.ly/2cwYgcB} \\ \hline 4 & 1.174\times10^{243} & 1.772\times10^{249} & 1.51\times10^6 &\text{http://bit.ly/2cIND7Y} \\ \hline 5 & 1.569\times10^{10\,526} & 5.180\times10^{10\,556} & 3.30\times10^{30} &\text{http://bit.ly/2cIwjl9}\\ \hline \end{array}$$

Is it a good approximation? No, in fact the relative error is growing so it seems to be diverging. But it begins reasonably well and it's a start. Maybe someone else can adapt it to make it work.


** By the derivation of Stirling's approximation.

*** Where $H(x)$ is the Hyperfactorial function.

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