English

A new trigonometric identity with applications

Combinatorics 2024-10-08 v3 Number Theory

Abstract

In this paper we obtain a new curious identity involving trigonometric functions. Namely, for any positive odd integer nn we prove that k=1n(1)k(cotkx)sink(nk)x=1n2,\sum_{k=1}^n(-1)^k(\cot kx)\sin k(n-k)x=\frac{1-n}2, which is equivalent to the identity k=1n(1)kUnk(coskx)=n+12,\sum_{k=1}^n(-1)^kU_{n-k}(\cos kx)=-\frac{n+1}2, where Um(z)U_m(z) stands for the mmth Chebyshev polynomial of the second kind. As a consequence, for any positive odd integer nn and positive integer mm we obtain k=1n(1)kk2mB2m+1(nk2)=0,\sum_{k=1}^n(-1)^kk^{2m}B_{2m+1}\left(\frac{n-k}2\right)=0, where Bj(x)B_j(x) denotes the Bernoulli polynomial of degree jj.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1907.08118,
  title  = {A new trigonometric identity with applications},
  author = {Zhi-Wei Sun and Hao Pan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.08118},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

6 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T10:24:28.547Z