English

On Louchard's Asymptotic Series

Combinatorics 2017-11-01 v2 Number Theory

Abstract

Recently G. Louchard obtained an asymptotic series j=0Ijnj\sum_{j=0}^\infty\frac{I_j}{n^j} for the integral 01[xn+(1x)n]1ndx\int_0^1[x^n+(1-x)^n]^{\frac1n}dx as nn\to\infty, and computed IjI_j for j5j\le 5 in terms of values of the Riemann zeta function. An interesting feature of the computation is that the IjI_j are first obtained in terms of alternating multiple zeta values, but then everything except products of ordinary zeta values cancels out. We obtain similar formulas for InI_n, 6n96\le n\le 9, and conjecture a general formula for InI_n in terms of alternating multiple zeta values. We also conjecture that InI_n is a rational polynomial in the ordinary zeta values.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.03528,
  title  = {On Louchard's Asymptotic Series},
  author = {Michael E. Hoffman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.03528},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

The conjectures made in the first version of this note were incorrect, due to neglect of some terms in the expansion of the integral

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:08:40.801Z