Borwein integral

In mathematics, a Borwein integral is an integral whose unusual properties were first presented by mathematicians David Borwein and Jonathan Borwein in 2001.^[1] Borwein integrals involve products of ${\displaystyle \mathrm {sinc} (ax)}$, where the sinc function is given by ${\displaystyle \mathrm {sinc} (x)=\sin(x)/x}$ for ${\displaystyle x}$ not equal to 0, and ${\displaystyle \mathrm {sinc} (0)=1}$.^[1][2]

These integrals are remarkable for exhibiting apparent patterns that eventually break down. The following is an example.

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}&\int _{0}^{\infty }{\frac {\sin(x)}{x}}\,dx={\frac {\pi }{2}}\\[10pt]&\int _{0}^{\infty }{\frac {\sin(x)}{x}}{\frac {\sin(x/3)}{x/3}}\,dx={\frac {\pi }{2}}\\[10pt]&\int _{0}^{\infty }{\frac {\sin(x)}{x}}{\frac {\sin(x/3)}{x/3}}{\frac {\sin(x/5)}{x/5}}\,dx={\frac {\pi }{2}}\end{aligned}}}$

This pattern continues up to

${\displaystyle \int _{0}^{\infty }{\frac {\sin(x)}{x}}{\frac {\sin(x/3)}{x/3}}\cdots {\frac {\sin(x/13)}{x/13}}\,dx={\frac {\pi }{2}}.}$

At the next step the obvious pattern fails,

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\int _{0}^{\infty }{\frac {\sin(x)}{x}}{\frac {\sin(x/3)}{x/3}}\cdots {\frac {\sin(x/15)}{x/15}}\,dx&={\frac {467807924713440738696537864469}{935615849440640907310521750000}}~\pi \\[5pt]&={\frac {\pi }{2}}-{\frac {6879714958723010531}{935615849440640907310521750000}}~\pi \\[5pt]&\approx {\frac {\pi }{2}}-2.31\times 10^{-11}.\end{aligned}}}$

In general, similar integrals have value π/2 whenever the numbers 3, 5, 7… are replaced by positive real numbers such that the sum of their reciprocals is less than 1.

In the example above, 1/3 + 1/5 + … + 1/13 < 1, but 1/3 + 1/5 + … + 1/15 > 1.

With the inclusion of the additional factor ${\displaystyle 2\cos(x)}$, the pattern holds up over a longer series,^[3]

${\displaystyle \int _{0}^{\infty }2\cos(x){\frac {\sin(x)}{x}}{\frac {\sin(x/3)}{x/3}}\cdots {\frac {\sin(x/111)}{x/111}}\,dx={\frac {\pi }{2}},}$

but

${\displaystyle \int _{0}^{\infty }2\cos(x){\frac {\sin(x)}{x}}{\frac {\sin(x/3)}{x/3}}\cdots {\frac {\sin(x/111)}{x/111}}{\frac {\sin(x/113)}{x/113}}\,dx<{\frac {\pi }{2}}.}$

In this case, 1/3 + 1/5 + … + 1/111 < 2, but 1/3 + 1/5 + … + 1/113 > 2.

The reason the original and the extended series break down has been demonstrated with an intuitive mathematical explanation.^[4][5] In particular, a random walk reformulation with a causality argument sheds light on the pattern breaking and opens the way for a number of generalizations.^[6]

General formula[]

Given a sequence of nonzero real numbers, ${\displaystyle a_{0},a_{1},a_{2},\ldots }$, a general formula for the integral

${\displaystyle \int _{0}^{\infty }\prod _{k=0}^{n}{\frac {\sin(a_{k}x)}{a_{k}x}}\,dx}$

can be given.^[1] To state the formula, one will need to consider sums involving the ${\displaystyle a_{k}}$. In particular, if ${\displaystyle \gamma =(\gamma _{1},\gamma _{2},\ldots ,\gamma _{n})\in \{\pm 1\}^{n}}$ is an ${\displaystyle n}$-tuple where each entry is ${\displaystyle \pm 1}$, then we write ${\displaystyle b_{\gamma }=a_{0}+\gamma _{1}a_{1}+\gamma _{2}a_{2}+\cdots +\gamma _{n}a_{n}}$, which is a kind of alternating sum of the first few ${\displaystyle a_{k}}$, and we set ${\displaystyle \varepsilon _{\gamma }=\gamma _{1}\gamma _{2}\cdots \gamma _{n}}$, which is either ${\displaystyle \pm 1}$. With this notation, the value for the above integral is

${\displaystyle \int _{0}^{\infty }\prod _{k=0}^{n}{\frac {\sin(a_{k}x)}{a_{k}x}}\,dx={\frac {\pi }{2a_{0}}}C_{n}}$

where

${\displaystyle C_{n}={\frac {1}{2^{n}n!\prod _{k=1}^{n}a_{k}}}\sum _{\gamma \in \{\pm 1\}^{n}}\varepsilon _{\gamma }b_{\gamma }^{n}\operatorname {sgn}(b_{\gamma })}$

In the case when ${\displaystyle a_{0}>|a_{1}|+|a_{2}|+\cdots +|a_{n}|}$, we have ${\displaystyle C_{n}=1}$.

Furthermore, if there is an ${\displaystyle n}$ such that for each ${\displaystyle k=0,\ldots ,n-1}$ we have ${\displaystyle 0<a_{n}<2a_{k}}$ and ${\displaystyle a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots +a_{n-1}<a_{0}<a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots +a_{n-1}+a_{n}}$, which means that ${\displaystyle n}$ is the first value when the partial sum of the first ${\displaystyle n}$ elements of the sequence exceed ${\displaystyle a_{0}}$, then ${\displaystyle C_{k}=1}$ for each ${\displaystyle k=0,\ldots ,n-1}$ but

${\displaystyle C_{n}=1-{\frac {(a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots +a_{n}-a_{0})^{n}}{2^{n-1}n!\prod _{k=1}^{n}a_{k}}}}$

The first example is the case when ${\displaystyle a_{k}={\frac {1}{2k+1}}}$.

Note that if ${\displaystyle n=7}$ then ${\displaystyle a_{7}={\frac {1}{15}}}$ and ${\displaystyle {\frac {1}{3}}+{\frac {1}{5}}+{\frac {1}{7}}+{\frac {1}{9}}+{\frac {1}{11}}+{\frac {1}{13}}\approx 0.955}$ but ${\displaystyle {\frac {1}{3}}+{\frac {1}{5}}+{\frac {1}{7}}+{\frac {1}{9}}+{\frac {1}{11}}+{\frac {1}{13}}+{\frac {1}{15}}\approx 1.02}$, so because ${\displaystyle a_{0}=1}$, we get that

${\displaystyle \int _{0}^{\infty }{\frac {\sin(x)}{x}}{\frac {\sin(x/3)}{x/3}}\cdots {\frac {\sin(x/13)}{x/13}}\,dx={\frac {\pi }{2}}}$

which remains true if we remove any of the products, but that

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}&\int _{0}^{\infty }{\frac {\sin(x)}{x}}{\frac {\sin(x/3)}{x/3}}\cdots {\frac {\sin(x/15)}{x/15}}\,dx\\[5pt]={}&{\frac {\pi }{2}}\left(1-{\frac {(3^{-1}+5^{-1}+7^{-1}+9^{-1}+11^{-1}+13^{-1}+15^{-1}-1)^{7}}{2^{6}\cdot 7!\cdot (1/3\cdot 1/5\cdot 1/7\cdot 1/9\cdot 1/11\cdot 1/13\cdot 1/15)}}\right)\end{aligned}}}$

which is equal to the value given previously.

References[]

External links[]

• Patterns That Eventually Fail, 20 September 2018
• Breakdown, 2 February 2012
• Illusive patterns in math explained by ideas in physics, 19 July 2019
• (video) When random walkers help solving intriguing integrals 19 July 2019
• (video) Convolution, Fourier Transforms and Sinc Integrals 16 September 2020