Rational approximations to the zeta function

This article describes a sequence of rational functions which converges locally uniformly to the zeta function. The numerators (and denominators) of these rational functions can be expressed as characteristic polynomials of matrices that are on the face of it very simple. As a consequence, the Riemann hypothesis can be restated as what looks like a rather conventional spectral problem but which is related to the one found by Connes in his analysis of the zeta function. However the point here is that the rational approximations look to be susceptible of quantitative estimation.