An Exotic integral

Calculus Level 5


The answer is 0.0958.

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2 solutions

Mark Hennings
Jun 16, 2017

By methods analogous to those shown here , and doubtless elsewhere, we can show that 0 1 0 1 0 1 { x y } { y z } { z x } d x d y d z = A 1 A 2 + A 1 A 2 \int_0^1 \int_0^1 \int_0^1 \left\{\frac{x}{y}\right\} \left\{\frac{y}{z}\right\} \left\{\frac{z}{x}\right\}\,dx\,dy\,dz \; = \; A_1 - A_2 + A_1A_2 where A j = 0 1 t j { t 1 } d t j 1 A_j \; = \; \int_0^1 t^j\big\{t^{-1}\big\}\,dt \hspace{2cm} j \ge 1 We then calculate A j = 0 1 t j { t 1 } d t = 1 u j 2 { u } d u = k = 1 k k + 1 ( u k ) u j 2 d u = k = 1 [ 1 j ( 1 k j 1 ( k + 1 ) j ) + k j + 1 ( 1 ( k + 1 ) j + 1 1 k j + 1 ) ] = 1 j 1 j + 1 ζ ( j + 1 ) \begin{aligned} A_j & = \int_0^1 t^j \big\{ t^{-1}\big\}\,dt \; = \; \int_1^\infty u^{-j-2}\big\{u\big\}\,du \; = \; \sum_{k=1}^\infty \int_k^{k+1} (u-k)u^{-j-2}\,du \\ & = \sum_{k=1}^\infty \left[ \frac{1}{j}\left(\frac{1}{k^j} - \frac{1}{(k+1)^j}\right) + \frac{k}{j+1}\left(\frac{1}{(k+1)^{j+1}} - \frac{1}{k^{j+1}}\right)\right] \\ & = \frac{1}{j} - \frac{1}{j+1}\zeta(j+1) \end{aligned} and so the integral is 1 3 4 ζ ( 2 ) + 1 6 ζ ( 2 ) ζ ( 3 ) = 1 1 8 π 2 + 1 36 π 2 ζ ( 3 ) = 0.09585017491 1 - \tfrac34\zeta(2) + \tfrac16\zeta(2)\zeta(3) \; = \; 1 - \tfrac18\pi^2 + \tfrac{1}{36}\pi^2\zeta(3) \; = \; \boxed{0.09585017491}

@Mark Hennings - Nice Solution!!

Shivam Sharma - 3 years, 11 months ago

@Mark Hennings For the case of n = 3 n=3 we split the integral into two integrals each repeated 3 3 times thus making a total 3 ! 3! cases which is what we expect when we rearrange all possible variants of the inequality 0 < x < y < z < 1 0<x<y<z<1 . That is ,

0 1 0 1 0 1 { x y } { y z } { z x } d x d y d z = 3 0 < x < y < z < 1 x y y z { z x } d x d y d z 1 fractional part + 3 0 < x < z < y < 1 x y { y z } { z x } d x d y d z 2 fractional parts \displaystyle \int_0^1 \int_0^1 \int_0^1 \left\{\dfrac{x}{y}\right\}\left\{\dfrac{y}{z}\right\}\left\{\dfrac{z}{x}\right\}\; dx\; dy\; dz = 3\underbrace{\int\limits_{0<x<y<z<1}\dfrac{x}{y}\dfrac{y}{z}\left\{\dfrac{z}{x}\right\}\; dx\; dy\; dz}_{\text{1 fractional part}} +3\underbrace{\int_{0<x<z<y<1}\dfrac{x}{y}\left\{\dfrac{y}{z}\right\}\left\{\dfrac{z}{x}\right\}\; dx\; dy\; dz}_{\text{2 fractional parts}}

Exploiting symmetry for the case n = 4 n=4 in a similar manner we see that there will be three such splits of integrals with different coefficients having 1 , 2 , 3 1,2,3 fractional parts respectively. If we consider a n a_n to be coefficient of such a split integral having n n fractional parts in it's respective region of integration.

For the case n = 3 n=3 it seems that a 1 = a 2 = 3 a_1=a_2=3 , for the case of 4 integrals a 1 = 4 , a 2 = 16 , a 3 = 4 a_1=4,a_2=16,a_3=4 where ultimately all the a i a_i 's if added will definitely produce m ! m! where m m is the dimension of the integral we are working on since m m variables can be rearranged in m ! m! ways 0 < x 1 < x 2 < < x m < 1 0<x_1<x_2<\cdots<x_m<1 .

Since it seems quite impossible for me to identify a pattern of those coefficients. For the case of 5 5 integrals , the integral will be divided into 4 subintervals where a 1 = 5 , a 2 = 55 a_1=5,a_2=55 and so on. So it comes to me that we need a way to solve for those coefficients. This problem is equivalent to :

How many ways are there to rearrange 0 < x 1 < 2 < < x n < 1 0<x_1<_2<\cdots<x_n<1 so that out of these n n fractions x 1 x 2 , x 2 x 3 , , x n x 1 \displaystyle \dfrac{x_1}{x_2},\dfrac{x_2}{x_3},\cdots,\dfrac{x_n}{x_1} exactly k < n k<n of them will be > 1 \gt 1 .

Is there a way to approach this ? I am thinking of this from a pretty long time

Aditya Narayan Sharma - 3 years, 11 months ago
Shivam Sharma
Jul 29, 2017

My Solution ...

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