A while ago I asked a question about an identity that I found while playing with series involving harmonic numbers. However, since the methods I used were not the focus of my question, I never explained how I got this result. So here it goes...
NOTE: It may be of help to work backwards through this problem instead. This is just how I did it.
We start by defining Hn as the nth harmonic number.
We also take note of the identities:
∞∑n=1(−1)nn=−ln(2)
∞∑n=11n2=π26
Now we note that:
Hn=∞∑k=11k−1k+n=∞∑k=1nk(k+n)
Since ∑∞k=11k−1k+n is a telescoping series.
Dividing by n we get:
Hnn=∞∑k=11k(k+n)
Since ∑∞n=1Hnn is obviously divergent, I took a look at the alternating series:
∞∑n=1(−1)nHnn=∞∑n=1(−1)n(∞∑k=11k(k+n))
We must now multiply this series by 2 and add ∑∞n=11n2 which is necessary for the next step.
So we have:
∞∑n=11n2+2∞∑n=1(−1)n(∞∑k=11k(k+n))=(11⋅11+12⋅12+13⋅13+⋯)−2(11⋅12+12⋅13+13⋅14+⋯)+2(11⋅13+12⋅14+13⋅15+⋯)−2(11⋅14+12⋅15+13⋅16+⋯)+⋯
With a very careful (and possibly illegal) rearrangement of this expanded sum, we can finally obtain:
(NOTE: It may be easier to work backwards through this step)
∞∑n=11n2+2∞∑n=1(−1)n(∞∑k=11k(k+n))=(−11+12−13+⋯)(−11+12−13+⋯)=ln2(2)
Thus, we have:
∞∑n=1(−1)nHnn=6ln2(2)−π212=−0.5822...
Here are 3 graphs from computing the actual value of the sum. The first graph is of the difference between the actual sum and 6∗ln2(2)−π212 for k up to 14000. As you can see it seems to converge on 0. You can ignore the 2nd and 3rd graphs.
QUESTIONS:
Is the method used from step 4-5 (or vise versa) legal even though it involves conditionally convergent series? If not, is there any restrictions and/or rearrangements I can use to make it legal?
Is there any known generalizations for ∑∞n=1(−1)nHnnq that extend this result?
Recommended readings that cover this topic would be greatly appreciated as well.
Thanks,
Dom
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