5

This is a new integral that I propose to evaluate in closed form: $$ {\mathfrak{R}} \int_{0}^{\pi/2} \frac{x^2}{x^2+\log ^2(-2\cos x)} \:\mathrm{d}x$$ where $\Re$ denotes the real part and $\log (z)$ denotes the principal value of the logarithm defined for $z \neq 0$ by $$ \log (z) = \ln |z| + i \mathrm{Arg}z, \quad -\pi <\mathrm{Arg} z \leq \pi.$$

pisco
  • 18,983
Olivier Oloa
  • 120,989

2 Answers2

4

$$\color{blue}{\Re\int_{0}^{\pi/2} \frac{x^2}{x^2+\log ^2(-2\cos x)}dx = \frac{\pi }{8}\left( {1 - \ln 2 - \gamma } \right)}$$


For a proof, I will continue from $$\tag{4} - 8\Re I + 2\pi J = \pi \ln 2 - \pi$$ in this question. where $$J=\int_0^\infty {\frac{1}{{{x^2} + {\pi ^2}}}\left[ { - \frac{x}{{1 - {e^{ - x}}}} + \ln ({e^x} - 1)} \right]dx}$$ Integration by part shows $$J = -\pi \int_0^\infty {\arctan x\frac{{{e^{\pi x}}x}}{{{{\left( {{e^{\pi x}} - 1} \right)}^2}}}dx} $$ Invoke the Binet second formula: $$\ln\Gamma(z) = (z-\frac{1}{2})\ln z - z + \frac{\ln(2\pi)}{2}+2z\int_0^\infty \frac{\arctan t}{e^{2\pi t z} - 1} dt$$ The value of $J$ immdiately follows from differentiating with respect to $z$, and then set $z = 1/2$: $$J = -\frac{\gamma}{2}$$

I hope someone can explain reminiscence of this result to another question.

pisco
  • 18,983
  • Good catch! (+1) I had sent the above result to Jonathan Sondow: http://home.earthlink.net/~jsondow/ – Olivier Oloa Jan 22 '18 at 19:18
  • @OlivierOloa I wonder whether you already knew this result or not, because you also proposed an identity for the imaginary part. – pisco Jan 22 '18 at 19:41
  • I was not precisely aware of the rules of this site when I posted the original question (2014, one of my first posts), but I did have an answer... – Olivier Oloa Jan 22 '18 at 19:54
  • By the way, the imaginary part has a different kind of nice closed form... – Olivier Oloa Jan 22 '18 at 20:02
1

I don't think a closed form exists after computing that integral numerically in Mathematica, and looking up in the Inverse Symbolic Calculator. It is approximately equal to: $-0.10617124113817\ldots$ If you need more digits just ask.

Hakim
  • 10,213