Sunday, 30 August 2015

real analysis - Is sumlimitsin=1nfty(1)nfracHnn=frac6ln2(2)pi212 a valid identity?

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=11k1k+n=k=1nk(k+n)



Since k=11k1k+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+2n=1(1)n(k=11k(k+n))=(1111+1212+1313+)2(1112+1213+1314+)+2(1113+1214+1315+)2(1114+1215+1316+)+




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+2n=1(1)n(k=11k(k+n))=(11+1213+)(11+1213+)=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 6ln2(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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