1. Introduction, Motivation and Preliminaries
Integration is a classical tool in the evaluation of infinite series. The approach was revived recently in the papers by Sofo and Nimbran [
7], Stewart [
9], and Li and Chu [
3,
4,
5,
6]. For instance, Li and Chu review in [
6] a few (known) series involving harmonic numbers
and odd harmonic numbers
such as
obtained by using definite integrals. The authors evaluate difficult addition series involving alternating harmonic and odd harmonic numbers in closed form by employing calculus and complex analysis. Here, as usual, harmonic numbers
and odd harmonic numbers
are defined by
,
, and
Obvious relations between harmonic numbers
and odd harmonic numbers
are the following:
In this paper, we proceed in the same direction. Using integrals in combination with complex analysis and partial fraction decompositions we will evaluate in closed form the Euler-type series
for all
and all
with
. For instance, we will prove that
where
is Catalan’s constant. Another difficult evaluation that will be derived is
We proceed wit two special functions that will be needed. Let
be the dilogarithm defined by (see Lewin [
2])
having the special values
Let also
be the Clausen’s function defined by [
2,
10]
This function has the functional relations
and the special values
and
where
G is Catalan’s constant.
We conclude this section with a motivation of our approach. We start with the Beta integral [
8]:
Differentiating the above definition with respect to
a and using the fact that
we get
where
is the psi or digamma function,
being the Gamma function. This function is related to harmonic numbers via
, where
is the Euler-Mascheroni constant. From here we can make the transformations
and
to obtain
Also, by symmetry or by applying the transformations
and
we obtain
Now, let
. Then
and we can consider the series (for all
with
)
which can also be written as
This gives for all
with
or the particular relation
The evaluation of the integrals is not trivial but can be done by applying some additional theory.
2. Main Results, Part 1
In this section, we explicitly deal with the series on the left hand side of (
7).
Lemma 1.
For we have
Proof. Identity (
12) follows immediately from the fact that
A change of variable
gives
on account of (
12). Thus
since [
2, (8), p. 283]
□
Lemma 2. ([
2, p. 29]).
For , we have
where is Clausen’s function.
Proof. Using the decomposition
we have
in view of (
12). Now, (
15) gives
Using (4) with
gives
so that
Thus, using (
17), (
19) and the evaluation of
from (
1), we have
and hence (
16), in view of (
9). □
Alternative proof of Proposition 1. We begin with the partial fraction decomposition
Next,
and this gives
where the relation (see also [
2])
was used. Finally, from the indefinite integral
we get
Putting everything together we obtain the claimed result. □
Proof. Consider the partial fraction decomposition
which allows the integral on the rhs of (
10) to be written as
which upon using (
12) gives
Use of (
21) in (
10) gives (
20), after simplification. In taking the real part in (
21), it is convenient to use the fact that
for arbitrary
f and
g. □
Differentiating (
7)
m times with respect to
z and thereafter replacing
z with
gives
Theorem 1.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let , and be the distinct roots of where z is a real number such that . Then
and for r a positive integer and ,
Proof. We start with the partial fraction decomposition
where, for
, the coefficients
,
,
are found from (
24).
Differentiating (
12)
j times with respect to
gives
which, when utilized in (
28) yields an evaluation of the integral on the right hand side of (
22) and hence (
23). □
Corollary 2.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let where i is the imaginary unit. Then
where, for , the coefficients are given by
and for , , and are found from (26).
Proof. Set in Theorem 1. □
We now list some examples from (
30):
Corollary 3.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let where i is the imaginary unit. Then
where, for , the coefficients are given by
and for , , and are found from (26).
Proof. Set in Theorem 1. Note that , and are the roots of . □
We give one example from (
38). At
we have
since (
38) at
gives
the right hand side of which can be simplified using
for arbitrary functions
f and
g.
Differentiating (
8)
m times with respect to
z gives
Note that (
44) holds for every real number
m that is not a negative integer.
Setting
in (
44) gives
Theorem 4.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let , and be the distinct roots of where z is a real number with . Then
and , and are calculated using (25) and (26).
Proof. Consider the partial fraction decomposition
where, for
, the coefficients
,
,
are found from (
47). We therefore have
and hence (
46). □
Corollary 3.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let where i is the imaginary unit. Then
where, for , the coefficients are given by
and , and can be readily obtained from (25) and (26).
Proof. Set in Theorem 4. □
Here are a couple of evaluations using (
50):
Corollary 6.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let where i is the imaginary unit. Then
where, for , the coefficients are given by
and for , , and are found from (26).
Proof. Theorem 4 with . □
3. Main Results, Part 2
This section deals with the second category of series, i.e., series of the form
Differentiating (62)
m times with respect to
z and thereafter replacing
z with
gives
Theorem 7.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let , and be the distinct roots of where z is a real number such that . Then
where , , are as defined in Theorem 1 and and can be found from (25) and (26) in Theorem 1.
Proof. The proof is similar to that of Theorem 1. Note that
□
Corollary 8.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let where i is the imaginary unit. Then
where , , are as defined in (31)–(33) in Corollary 2 and are found from (25) and (26).
Proof. Theorem 7 with . □
Examples from Corollary 8 include
Corollary 6.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let where i is the imaginary unit. Then
where , , are as defined in (39)–(41) in Corollary 3 and are found from (25) and (26).
Proof. Theorem 7 with . □
Here we present a couple of examples from (
68).
As counterpart of (
44), we have
Note that (
71) holds for every real number
m that is not a negative integer.
Setting
in (
71) gives
while setting
gives
Proof. Using (2) and (13), we have
which simplifies to (
74). □
Setting
in (
73) gives
The integral occuring on the RHS can be evaluated. The result is stated in Proposition 4.
Proof. We wish to evaluate the integral in (
75). Proceeding as in Proposition 2, we have
so that upon using (13) we obtain
which simplifies to the RHS of (
76) upon using
. □
Theorem 4.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let , and be the distinct roots of where z is a real number such that . Then
where , , are as defined in Theorem 4 and and can be found from (25) and (26) in Theorem 1.
Proof. The proof is similar to that of Theorem 4. We evaluate the integral on the RHS of (
71). □
Corollary 7.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let where i is the imaginary unit. Then
where , , are as defined in (51)–(53) in Corollary 5 and are found from (25) and (26).
Proof. Theorem 10 with . □
At
and
in (
78) we obtain
and
Corollary 12.
Let m be a non-negative integer and let where i is the imaginary unit. Then
where , , are as defined in (58)–(60) in Corollary 6 and are found from (25) and (26).
Proof. Use Theorem 10 with . □
4. Concluding Remarks
Theorems similar to those in the previous section can be stated for alternating sums. There does not appear to be values of
z, however, for which the integrals can be evaluated in terms of elementary functions. For a slightly different direction of future research we mention that replacing
z by
and comparing the real and imaginary parts we get integral relations of the form
and
In all cases one can attempt to evaluate the integrals appearing on the right hand sides.
References
- M. Abramowitz and I. A. Stegun (Eds), Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables, National Bureau of Standards, Applied Mathematics Series 55, 10th edition, Washington, 1972.
- L. Lewin, Polylogarithms and Associated Functions, Elsevier/North-Holland, 1981.
- C. Li and W. Chu, Evaluation of infinite series by integrals, Mathematics 10, 2022, 2444. [CrossRef]
- C. Li and W. Chu, Improper integrals involving powers of inverse trigonometric and hyperbolic functions, Mathematics 10, 2022, 2980. [CrossRef]
- C. Li and W. Chu, Infinite triple series by integrals, PUBLICATIONS DE L’INSTITUT MATHÉMATIQUE Nouvelle série 112 (126), 2022, 131–142.
- C. Li and W. Chu, Evaluating infinite series involving harmonic numbers by integration, Mathematics 12, 2024, 589. [CrossRef]
- A. Sofo and A. S. Nimbran, Euler sums and integral connections, Mathematics 7, 2019, 833. [CrossRef]
- H. M. Srivastava and J. Choi, Series Associated with the Zeta and Related Functions, Springer Science+Media, B.V., 2001.
- S. M. Stewart, Explicit evaluation of some quadratic Euler-type sums containing double-index harmonic numbers, Tatra Mt. Math. Publ. 77, 2020, 73–98. [CrossRef]
- S. B. Tric̆ković and M. S. Stanković, On the closed form of Clausen functions, Integral Transforms Spec. Funct. 34 (6) (2023), 469–477. [CrossRef]
|
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).