I am trying to prove this interesting integral$$
\mathcal{I}:=\int_0^{\pi/4}\frac{dx}{{\sin 2x}\,(\tan^ax+\cot^ax)}=\frac{\pi}{8a},\qquad \mathcal{Re}(a)\neq 0.
$$
This result is breath taking but I am more stumped than usual. It truly is magnificent. I am not sure how to approach this,
note $\sin 2x=2\sin x \cos x$. I am not sure how to approach this because of the term
$$
(\tan^ax+\cot^ax)
$$
in the denominator. I was trying to use the identity
$$
\tan \left(\frac{\pi}{2}-x\right)=\cot x
$$
since this method solves a similar kind of integral but didn't get anywhere. A bad idea I tried was to try and differentiate with respect to a
$$
\frac{dI(a)}{da}=\int_0^{\pi/4}\partial_a \left(\frac{dx}{{\sin 2x}\,(\tan^ax+\cot^ax)}\right)=\int_0^{\pi/4} \frac{(\cot^a x \log(\cot x )+\log(\tan x ) \tan^a x)}{\sin 2x \, (\cot^a x+\tan^a x)^2}dx
$$
which seems more complicated when I break it up into two integrals. How can we solve the integral? Thanks.
Answer
Rewrite:
\begin{align}
\int_0^{\Large\frac\pi4}\frac{dx}{{\sin 2x}\,(\tan^ax+\cot^ax)}&=\int_0^{\Large\frac\pi4}\frac{dx}{{2\sin x\cos x}\,\left(\tan^ax+\dfrac1{\tan^ax}\right)}\\
&=\frac12\int_0^{\Large\frac\pi4}\frac{\tan^ax\ dx}{{\tan x\cos^2x}\,\left(1+\tan^{2a}x\right)}\\
&=\frac12\int_0^{\Large\frac\pi4}\frac{\tan^{a-1}x\ d(\tan x)}{1+\tan^{2a}x}.
\end{align}
Now, let $\tan^a x=\tan\theta\;\Rightarrow\;a\tan^{a-1}x\ d(\tan x)=\sec^2\theta\ d\theta$. Then
\begin{align}
\frac12\int_{x=0}^{\Large\frac\pi4}\frac{\tan^{a-1}x\ d(\tan x)}{1+\tan^{2a}x}&=\frac1{2|a|}\int_{\theta=0}^{\Large\frac\pi4}\frac{\sec^2\theta\ d\theta}{1+\tan^{2}\theta}\\
&=\frac1{2|a|}\int_{\theta=0}^{\Large\frac\pi4}\ d\theta\\
&=\large\color{blue}{\frac{\pi}{8|a|}}.
\end{align}
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