5
$\begingroup$

I'm interested to know how do I evaluate this integral: $$\int_{1}^{\infty}\frac{y\cosh(yx)}{\sinh(y\pi)}dy.$$

Wolfram alpha gives the output $$\frac1{(\pi-x)^2}+\text{Li}(-2e^{-2\pi})-\frac{\log(1-e^{-2\pi})}{\pi}-\frac12+O(\pi-x).$$

Note: I have tried to put $x=y$ to show if the above integral easy for evaluation where I took $t=\tan\frac{x}{2}$ but I got a complicated form which I can't use some standard and simple trigonometric transformations for,

Thank you for any help.

$\endgroup$
6
  • $\begingroup$ A few questions: (1) I can't see what Wolfram gave you? (2) Are you sure the lower limit is $y=1$? (3) You may have to limit the range of values for $x$, such as $\vert\frac{x}{\pi}\vert<1$. Else the integral seems divergent. $\endgroup$
    – T. Amdeberhan
    Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 22:25
  • $\begingroup$ it shows :$\frac{1}{(\pi-x)²}+\frac{Li-{2}{e}^{(-2\pi)}}{2\pi²}-\frac{ln(1-{e}^{(-2pi)}}{\pi}-0.5+O(\pi-x)$ $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 22:30
  • $\begingroup$ Assuming $-\pi<x<\pi$, Mathematica does produce a closed form. But it is too long to write in a comment, and involves all the following functions: HurwitzLerchPhi, HurwitzZeta, Hypergeometric2F1, and Zeta. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 23:01
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @YoussraElYossraYoussra: why are you interested in this integral? $\endgroup$
    – T. Amdeberhan
    Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 23:36
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ That Wolfram result is not an "evaluation of the integral". The O on the end means it is an asymptotic expansion. Presumably it tells you how it behaves neear $x=\pi$. $\endgroup$
    – GEdgar
    Commented Oct 15, 2016 at 0:14

2 Answers 2

3
$\begingroup$

This may not be an answer to you mainly because there is perhaps no nice closed form, after all, according to what you like to call is "closed form" (an ever-evolving terminology depending on current knowledge of "elementary" functions).

Make the substitution $u=\pi y$ followed by $z=\frac{x}{\pi}$, and for convergence reasons assume $\vert z\vert<1$. Then, the given integral transforms to $$J:=\frac1{\pi^2}\int_{\pi}^{\infty}\frac{u\cosh(uz)}{\sinh u}du.$$ At this point, convert the hyperbolic functions into exponential and apply the geometric series $\frac1{1-e^{-2u}}=\sum_{k\geq0}e^{-2uk}$ to get (denoting $\alpha:=1-z$ and $\beta:=1+z$): \begin{align} J&=\frac1{\pi^2}\int_{\pi}^{\infty}\frac{u(e^{-u\alpha}-e^{-u\beta})}{1-e^{-2u}}du \\ &=\frac1{\pi^2}\sum_{k\geq0}\int_{\pi}^{\infty}u\left(e^{-u(2k+\alpha)}-e^{-u(2k+\beta}\right)du \\ &=\frac1{\pi^2}\sum_{k\geq0}\left(\frac{e^{-(2k+\alpha)\pi}}{(2k+\alpha)^2}+\frac{\pi e^{-(2k+\alpha)\pi}}{2k+\alpha}\right)- \frac1{\pi^2}\sum_{k\geq0}\left(\frac{e^{-(2k+\beta)\pi}}{(2k+\beta)^2}+\frac{\pi e^{-(2k+\alpha)\pi}}{2k+\beta}\right). \end{align} We recall the definition of the Lerch zeta function $$L(\lambda,a,s)=\sum_{k\geq0}\frac{e^{2\pi i\lambda k}}{(k+a)^s}.$$ As you can see, the integral $J$ may now be expressed as a linear combination of 4 Lerch values.

Caveat. Each of these 4 Lerch evaluations involve $i=\sqrt{-1}$, suggesting that one should be able (in theory) to combine (simplify) them in pairs since in the end $J$ should be real-valued.

$\endgroup$
3
$\begingroup$

I presume you are actually interested in this integral for some application, and then you might want a convenient expression --- Mathematica does evaluate it in closed form [*], as indicated in the comments, but this involves special functions and might not be of much practical use. Here is what I propose to do. Consider the integral with a variable lower bound,

$$I_u(x)=\int_{u}^{\infty}\frac{y\cosh(yx)}{\sinh(y\pi)}dy,\;\;u\geq 0,\;\;|x|<\pi.$$

The function for $u=0$ has a simple form,

$$I_0(x)=\frac{1}{2+2\cos x},$$

which is already quite close to the desired $I_1(x)$. We can improve by adding an offset of $-1/4$, as is evident from the plot: blue = $I_1$, orange = $I_0$, green = $I_0-\frac{1}{4}=\frac{1}{4}\tan^2(x/2)$


[*] For the record, after some massaging this is the Mathematica output for $I_1$, with $\Phi$ the Lerch transcendent:

$$I_1(x)= \frac{1}{2\cos^2(x/2)}\\ \quad+\sum_{+x,-x}\left[\frac{e^{\pi+x}}{\pi+x} \, _2F_1\left(1,\tfrac{x }{2 \pi }+\tfrac{1}{2};\tfrac{x}{2\pi} +\tfrac{3}{2};e^{2 \pi }\right)-\frac{e^{\pi+x}}{4 \pi ^2 } \Phi \left(e^{2 \pi },2,\tfrac{x }{2 \pi }+\tfrac{1}{2}\right)\right]$$

(the sum over $+x$ and $-x$ ensures that the result is an even function of $x$, as it should be)

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .