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Consider for $x>0$

$$f(x) = \frac{\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \sin^2(x/n)}{x}$$

I was fascinated by the behaviour of this function.

It is easy to show that

$$\lim_{x \to +0} \frac{f(x)}{x} = \zeta(2) = \frac{\pi^2}{6}$$

It seems we get for all $x>1$

$$f(1) \leq f(x) \leq \zeta(2)$$

and for all sufficiently large $x > d$ (for some $d$) :

$$ C(d) \leq f(x) $$

for some nonzero $C(d)$ larger than $f(1)$.

But also the remarkable

$$f(y) = \zeta(2)$$

for some mysterious $y$ around $4.56...$

I guess $C$ and $y$ have closed forms too.

Let $x>5$, then I wonder about the possible existance of

$$ \lim \sup f(x) = A $$

and is $A = \zeta(2)$ ?

Similarly

Let $x>5$, then I wonder about the possible existance of

$$ \lim \inf f(x) = B $$

and is $C(d) < B$ for any choice of $d$ ?

How often do we get a local maximum in a given real interval ?

The function $f(x)$ converges pretty slowly, what makes computation harder.

It would be nice to have some plots.

mick
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  • Note : $f(x)$ is not a fourier series and it is analytic for $x>0$ – mick Nov 28 '23 at 23:42
  • It might help to write this as a power series. Use the identity $sin^2(x) = \frac{1 - \cos(2x)}2$ and use the Taylor series for cosine. Change the order of the sums, and we find that $$ f(x) = \sum_{n = 1}^\infty (-1)^{n-1} \cdot \frac{2^{2n - 1}\zeta(2n)}{(2n)!}x^{2n - 1}. $$ – Polygon Nov 29 '23 at 02:56
  • I'm afraid the function does not really kiss the line $y=\zeta(2)$. Summing to $20,000$ terms, I get $f(4.561) = 1.64497$. With the Taylor series way, I can get $f(4.561)$ to go even higher - $1.6452$, though I am a bit less confident about the error bounds this way. – Polygon Nov 29 '23 at 03:07
  • If we remove the $\zeta(2n)$ from the power series form, we get the power series for $sin^2(x)/x$, which and but converges to $0$ as $x \to \infty$. If we subtract this from $f$, get the same power series, but with $\zeta(2n)$ replaced with $(\zeta(2n) - 1)$, which makes the series converge faster, though less bumpy, while not changing the asymptotic behavior. – Polygon Nov 29 '23 at 04:04

1 Answers1

2

This seems more like a general request for information than a specific question, so I'll give some analysis, including

  • An faster-converging upper bound, which you can use to sandwich the value of $f$,
  • The limit of $f(x)$ as $x \to \infty$,
  • The power series expansion of $f$.

Also, here is a Desmos graph with a some of the mentioned formulas: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/mlgjz3cu0b


First, note that the term in the sum is positive, so for positive $x$, $f(x)$ is greater than its partial sums. Each partial sum is a lower bound for $f$. We can find an upper bound like this:

\begin{align} f(x) - \sum_{n = 1}^N \frac{\sin^2(x/n)}x &= \sum_{n = N + 1}^\infty \frac{\sin^2(x/n)}x\\ &\leq \sum_{n = N + 1}^\infty \frac{x^2/n^2}x\\ &= x\sum_{n = N + 1}^\infty \frac1{n^2}\\ &\leq x\int_N^\infty \frac1{t^2}dt\\ &= \frac xN. \end{align}

Therefore, $$ \sum_{n = 1}^N \frac{\sin^2(x/n)}x + \frac xN $$ is an upper bound for $f(x)$. Conveniently, this upper bound converges faster than the original expression, so you can graph it to see a more accurate picture of the function.


Now, I'll show that $f(x) \to \pi/2$ as $x \to \infty$. For every natural number $N$, let $$ f_N(x) = \sum_{n = 1}^{\lceil Nx\rceil} \frac{\sin^2(x/n)}x. $$ Clearly, $f_N(x)$ converges pointwise to $f(x)$ as $N \to \infty$. Applying the upper bound we just found, we can see that $$ |f(x) - f_N(x)| = f(x) - \sum_{n = 1}^{\lceil Nx\rceil} \frac{\sin^2(x/n)}x < \frac x{Nx} = \frac1N, $$ which implies that the convergence is uniform. This means that we can interchange limits of $x$ and $N$, so $$ \lim_{x \to \infty} f(x) = \lim_{x \to \infty}\left(\lim_{N \to \infty} f_N(x)\right) = \lim_{N \to \infty}\left(\lim_{x \to \infty} f_N(x)\right). $$

Now, we will see that $f_N(x)$ is a Riemann sum of $\sin^2(1/t)$, which will allow us to convert it into an integral. Consider the partition $p = \{\frac1x, \frac2x, \frac3x, \dots, \frac{\lceil Nx\rceil + 1}x\}$. Then $$ f_N(x) = \sum_{n = 1}^{\lceil Nx\rceil} \sin^2\left(\frac1{t^*_n}\right) \Delta t_n, $$ where $t^*_n = n/x$ and $\Delta t_n = 1/x$. This is a Riemann sum of $\sin^2(1/t)$ over $p$. Since $\sin^2(1/t)$ is Riemann-integrable for positive numbers and $\|p\| = 1/x \to 0$ as $x \to \infty$, we have $$ \lim_{x \to \infty} f_N(x) = \int_0^N \sin^2\left(\frac1t\right)dt. $$ This means that $$ \lim_{N \to \infty}\left(\lim_{x \to \infty} f_N(x)\right) = \int_0^\infty \sin^2\left(\frac1t\right)dt. $$

Substituting $u = 1/t$ transforms the integral to $$ \int_0^\infty \frac{\sin^2(u)}{u^2}du, $$ which is proved to equal $\pi/2$ by the answers to this question. Therefore $$ \lim_{x \to \infty} f(x) = \frac\pi2. $$


To find the power series expansion, note that \begin{align} f(x) = \sum_{n = 1}^\infty \frac{\sin^2(x/n)}x &= \sum_{n = 1}^\infty \frac{1 - \cos(2x/n)}{2x}\\ &= \sum_{n = 1}^\infty \frac{1 - \left(1 - \frac1{2!}\left(\frac{2x}n\right)^2 + \frac1{4!}\left(\frac{2x}n\right)^4 - \frac1{6!}\left(\frac{2x}n\right)^6 + \cdots\right)}{2x}\\ &= \sum_{n = 1}^\infty \frac{\sum_{k = 1}^{\infty}(-1)^{k-1} \frac1{(2k)!}\left( \frac{2x}n \right)^{2k}}{2x}\\ &=\sum_{n=1}^\infty \sum_{k=1}^\infty (-1)^{k-1} \frac1{n^{2k}} \cdot \frac{(2x)^{2k-1}}{(2k)!}. \end{align}

Because Taylor series converges absolutely, we know that the inner sum converges absolutely. And since the inner sum is $O(1/n^2)$, the double sum must converge absolutely. Therefore, we can swap the sums, or equivalently, swap $n$ and $k$.

\begin{align} &=\sum_{n=1}^\infty \sum_{k=1}^\infty (-1)^{n-1} \frac1{k^{2n}} \cdot \frac{(2x)^{2n-1}}{(2n)!}\\ &=\sum_{n=1}^\infty (-1)^{n-1} \frac{(2x)^{2n-1}}{(2n)!} \sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac1{k^{2n}}\\ f(x) &= \sum_{n=1}^\infty (-1)^{n-1} \frac{\zeta(2n)(2x)^{2n-1}}{(2n)!}. \end{align}

Polygon
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