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Is there a closed form for this infinite product? :

$$\prod_{n=1}^{\infty}\operatorname{sinc}\left(\frac{\alpha}{n}\right)$$

where $\operatorname{sinc}(x)=\sin(x)/x$ is the familiar "sinc" function and $\alpha$ is some real parameter.

I would be rather surprised there is, but nevertheless ...

SIDE NOTE : I perform a numerical analysis and my guess for its taylor series in terms of $\alpha$ upto second power may be : $1-\alpha^2\zeta(2)/6$

Machinato
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2 Answers2

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Since $$\frac{\sin x}{x}=\prod_{n\geq 1}\left(1-\frac{x^2}{\pi^2 n^2}\right) $$ we have: $$ \log\text{sinc}(x) = -\sum_{n\geq 1}\sum_{m\geq 1}\frac{x^{2m}}{m\pi^{2m} n^{2m}}=-\sum_{m\geq 1}\frac{\zeta(2m)}{m\pi^{2m}}x^{2m}$$ and

$$ \sum_{n\geq 1}\log\text{sinc}\left(\frac{\alpha}{n}\right) = -\sum_{m\geq 1}\frac{\color{red}{\zeta(2m)^2}}{m\pi^{2m}}\alpha^{2m}.$$

Jack D'Aurizio
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If you are familiar with Fourier transforms, you can interpret this product as the iterated convolution of the fourier transform of the sinc function, which is a constant function on an interval, and 0 outside of that interval. Furthermore if we interpret this function as a probability density function of a random variable (uniform probability distribution), and that convolution of density functions correspond to the density function of the sum of the random variables and also remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_large_numbers this will approach a normal distribution for any function that is "nice enough", and certainly a uniform distribution is nice enough for that.

mathreadler
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  • Actually yes, exactly you have said, that should had been my attempt (long ago) to "prove" Basel problem, which has turned up to be a complete "fiasco", since I cannot "invert" the characteristic function - this way the resulting product to be inverted. Although, it can be partially "resolved" using probabilistic approach like this one using another distribution, namely Laplace will do the work - I wrote an answer few days ago (link bellow) so you can check If you and I ment the same :

    link : http://math.stackexchange.com/a/1833829/240067

    – Machinato Jun 24 '16 at 00:38
  • It's not a fiasco - it's just the phenomenon that the ones that are fast to accomplish anything tend to get more attention than the ones who do the thorough work. – mathreadler Jun 24 '16 at 09:10