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While solving a quantum mechanics problem using perturbation theory I encountered the following sum $$ S_{0,1}=\sum_{m=1}^\infty\frac{y_{1,m}y_{0,1}}{[y_{1,m}-y_{0,1}]^3}, $$ where $y_{n,k}=\left(\text{BesselJZero[n,k]}\right)^2$ is square of the $k$-th zero of Bessel function $J_n$ of the first kind.

Numerical calculation using Mathematica showed that $S_{0,1}\approx 0.1250000$. Although I couldn't verify this with higher precision I found some other cases where analogous sums are close to rational numbers. Specifically, after some experimentation I found that the sums $$ S_{n,k}=\sum_{m=1}^\infty\frac{y_{n+1,m}y_{n,k}}{[y_{n+1,m}-y_{n,k}]^3} $$ are independent of $k$ and have rational values for integer $n$, and made the following conjecture

$\bf{Conjecture:}\ $ for $k=1,2,3,...$ and arbitrary $n\geq 0$ $$\sum_{m=1}^\infty\frac{y_{n+1,m}y_{n,k}}{[y_{n+1,m}-y_{n,k}]^3}\overset{?}=\frac{n+1}{8},\\ \text{where}\ y_{n,k}=\left(\text{BesselJZero[n,k]}\right)^2. $$

How one can prove it?

It seems this conjecture is correct also for negative values of $n$. For example for $n=-\frac{1}{2}$ one has $y_{\frac{1}{2},m}=\pi^2 m^2$, $y_{-\frac{1}{2},k}=\pi^2 \left(k-\frac{1}{2}\right)^2$ and the conjecture becomes (see Claude Leibovici's answer for more details) $$ \sum_{m=1}^\infty\frac{m^2\left(k-\frac{1}{2}\right)^2}{\left(m^2-\left(k-\frac{1}{2}\right)^2\right)^3}=\frac{\pi^2}{16}. $$

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    This is a beautiful conjecture, indeed. – Claude Leibovici Jan 03 '16 at 10:18
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    Conjecture correct to 50 places for $k=1,2,3$. So now you need to check a book like G. N. Watson, A Treatise on the Theory of Bessel Functions to see if your identity is there. – GEdgar Jan 03 '16 at 13:36
  • I would be interested to see what quantum mechanics problem this arises from. Maybe, we can use some other information from it to calculate whatever represents the sum? – mickep Jan 03 '16 at 13:50
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    @mickep the problem was to determine reflection coefficients of a quantum mechanichal particle that travels inside a tube of radius $r$, and then it enters a region where this tube is bend into a thorus of large radius $ R >> r$. Transition from straight region to bend region is sharp. The energy eigenvalues inside a tube are given by square of Bessel zeros. Inside the thorus the eigenvalues will be perturbed because of the extra curvature, so that eigenfunctions inside thorus will not match that of inside the straight tube, which will result in reflection of a fraction of incoming particles. –  Jan 03 '16 at 13:59
  • @GEdgar thanks. I looked Watson's book, but couldn't find the conjectured identity or analogous identities there. –  Jan 03 '16 at 16:08
  • Could you provide me some simple and known approximations for the $y$'s ? – Claude Leibovici Jan 04 '16 at 11:32

3 Answers3

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There is a rather neat proof of this.

First, note that there is already an analogue for this: DLMF §10.21 says that a Rayleigh function $\sigma_n(\nu)$ is defined as a similar power series $$ \sigma_n(\nu) = \sum_{m\geq1} y_{\nu, m}^{-n}. $$ It links to http://arxiv.org/abs/math/9910128v1 among others as an example of how to evaluate such things.

In your case, call $\zeta_m = y_{\nu,m}$ and $z=y_{\nu-1,k}$ ($\nu$ is $n$ shifted by $1$), so that after expanding in partial fractions your sum is $$ \sum_{m\geq1} \frac{\zeta_m z}{(\zeta_m-z)^3} = \sum_{m\geq1} \frac{z^2}{(\zeta_m-z)^3} + \frac{z}{(\zeta_m-z)^2}. $$

Introduce the function $$ y_\nu(z) = z^{-\nu/2}J_\nu(z^{1/2}). $$ By DLMF 10.6.5 its derivative satisfies the two relations $$\begin{aligned} y'_\nu(z) &= (2z)^{-1} y_{\nu-1}(z) - \nu z^{-1} y_\nu(z) \\&= -\tfrac12 y_{\nu+1}(z). \end{aligned} $$

It also has the infinite product expansion $$ y_\nu(z) = \frac{1}{2^\nu\nu!}\prod_{k\geq1}(1 - z/\zeta_k). $$ Therefore, each partial sum of $(\zeta_k-z)^{-s}$, $s\geq1$ can be evaluated in terms of derivatives of $y_\nu$: $$ \sum_{k\geq1}(\zeta_k-z)^{-s} = \frac{-1}{(s-1)!}\frac{d^s}{dz^s}\log y_\nu(z). $$ When evaluating this logarithmic derivative, the derivative $y'_\nu$ can be expressed in terms of $y_{\nu-1}$, going down in $\nu$, but the derivative $y'_{\nu-1}$ can be expressed in terms of $y_\nu$ using the other relation that goes up in the index $\nu$. So even higher-order derivatives contain only $y_\nu$ and $y_{\nu-1}$.

I calculated your sum using this procedure with a CAS as: $$ -\tfrac12z^2(\log y)''' -z(\log y)'' = \tfrac18\nu + z^{-1} P\big(y_{\nu-1}(z)/y_\nu(z)\big), $$ where $P$ is the polynomial $$ P(q) = -\tfrac18 q^3 + (\tfrac38\nu-\tfrac18) q^2 + (-\tfrac14\nu^2 + \tfrac14\nu - \tfrac18)q. $$

When $z$ is chosen to be any root of $y_{\nu-1}$, $z=\mathsf{BesselJZero}[\nu-1, k]\hat{}2$, $P(q)=0$, your sum is equal to $$ \frac{\nu}{8}, $$ which is $(n+1)/8$ in your notation.

It is possible to derive a number of such closed forms for sums of this type. For example, by differentiating $\log y$ differently (going $\nu\to\nu+1\to\nu$), one would get $$ \sum_{m\geq1} \frac{y_{\nu,m}y_{\nu+1,k}}{(y_{\nu,m}-y_{\nu+1,k})^3} = -\frac{\nu}{8}. $$

Some other examples, for which the r.h.s. is independent of $z$ ($\zeta_m=y_{\nu,m}, z=y_{\nu-1,l}$, $l$ arbitrary): $$ \begin{gathered} \sum_{k\geq1} \frac{\zeta_k}{(\zeta_k-z)^2} = \frac14,\\ \sum_{k\geq1} \frac{z^2}{(\zeta_k-z)^4} - \frac{1}{(\zeta_k-z)^2} + \frac1{24}\frac{5-\nu}{\zeta_k-z} = \frac{1}{48}, \\ \sum_{k\geq1} \frac{\zeta_k}{(\zeta_k-z)^4} + \frac1{96}\frac{z-\zeta_k-8+4\nu}{(\zeta_k-z)^2} = 0. \end{gathered} $$ or with $z=y_{\nu+1,l}$, $l$ arbitrary: $$ \begin{gathered} \sum_{k\geq1} \frac{z^2}{(\zeta_k-z)^3} = -\tfrac18\nu-\tfrac14, \end{gathered} $$ and they get messier with higher degrees.

Kirill
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  • It seems your answer is along the same lines as GEdgar's answer, but with details and interesting references, thanks, +1 –  Jan 09 '16 at 22:57
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This is a partial answer concerning the last conjecture.

If no mistake : considering the partial fraction decomposition of $$A_m=\frac{m^2 x^2}{\left(m^2-x^2\right)^3}$$ $$A_m =\frac{m}{8 (m-x)^3}+\frac{m}{8 (m+x)^3}-\frac{1}{16 (m-x)^2}-\frac{1}{16 (m+x)^2}-$$ $$\frac{1}{16 m (m-x)}-\frac{1}{16 m (m+x)}$$ and then $$S(x)=\sum_{m=1}^\infty A_m=\frac \pi{16x}\Big(\cot (\pi x)+\pi x \csc ^2(\pi x)-2 \pi ^2 x^2 \cot (\pi x) \csc ^2(\pi x)\Big)$$ Then, if $k$ is an integer, $$S(k-\frac 12)=\frac {\pi^2} {16}$$

You could be interested by this paper.

  • Thanks for independent verification. Any ideas how to approach the general conjecture? –  Jan 03 '16 at 12:47
  • It took me more time than i was expecting. Do you know analytical expressions of the $y$'s for some values of $n$ ? I am totally out of date with my documentation about the zero's of Bessel functions. Even for some particular cases, it could be very interesting. – Claude Leibovici Jan 03 '16 at 12:50
  • No, the only analytical expressions I knew were for $J_{\pm\frac{1}{2}}$. –  Jan 03 '16 at 12:56
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    Have a look at http://math.arizona.edu/~zakharov/BesselFunctions.pdf It could be interestingf to see what could be done of it. – Claude Leibovici Jan 03 '16 at 13:02
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Not an answer yet. But the references cited for that Wikipedia page may let you get the answer.

Begin with formula $$ J_\alpha(z) = \frac{(z/2)^\alpha}{\Gamma(\alpha+1)} \prod_{n=1}^\infty\left(1-\frac{z^2}{j_{\alpha,n}^2}\right) $$ Source: Wikipedia . Here $j_{\alpha,n}$ is the $n$th positive zero of $J_\alpha$.

Take logarithmic derivative to get $$ \frac{\alpha}{z} - \frac{J_{\alpha+1}(z)}{J_\alpha(z)} = \frac{\alpha}{z} + \sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{2z}{z^2-j_{\alpha,n}^2} $$ Replace $\alpha$ by $-\alpha$ and simplify $$ \frac{J_{\alpha-1}(z)}{J_\alpha(z)} = 2\sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{z}{j_{\alpha,n}^2-z^2} $$ Plug in $z=j_{\alpha-1,k}$ a zero of $J_{\alpha-1}$: $$ 0 = 2 \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{j_{\alpha-1,k}}{j_{\alpha,n}^2-j_{\alpha-1,k}^2} \\ 0 = \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{j_{\alpha,n}^2-j_{\alpha-1,k}^2} $$ We want something like this with the third power in the denominator.

GEdgar
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