Applications of the Cosecant and Related Numbers

  • Authors:
  • Victor Kowalenko

  • Affiliations:
  • ARC Centre for Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia 3010

  • Venue:
  • Acta Applicandae Mathematicae: an international survey journal on applying mathematics and mathematical applications
  • Year:
  • 2011

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Power series expansions for cosecant and related functions together with a vast number of applications stemming from their coefficients are derived here. The coefficients for the cosecant expansion can be evaluated by using: (1) numerous recurrence relations, (2) expressions resulting from the application of the partition method for obtaining a power series expansion and (3) the result given in Theorem 3. Unlike the related Bernoulli numbers, these rational coefficients, which are called the cosecant numbers and are denoted by c k , converge rapidly to zero as k驴驴. It is then shown how recent advances in obtaining meaningful values from divergent series can be modified to determine exact numerical results from the asymptotic series derived from the Laplace transform of the power series expansion for tcsc驴(at). Next the power series expansion for secant is derived in terms of related coefficients known as the secant numbers d k . These numbers are related to the Euler numbers and can also be evaluated by numerous recurrence relations, some of which involve the cosecant numbers. The approaches used to obtain the power series expansions for these fundamental trigonometric functions in addition to the methods used to evaluate their coefficients are employed in the derivation of power series expansions for integer powers and arbitrary powers of the trigonometric functions. Recurrence relations are of limited benefit when evaluating the coefficients in the case of arbitrary powers. Consequently, power series expansions for the Legendre-Jacobi elliptic integrals can only be obtained by the partition method for a power series expansion. Since the Bernoulli and Euler numbers give rise to polynomials from exponential generating functions, it is shown that the cosecant and secant numbers gives rise to their own polynomials from trigonometric generating functions. As expected, the new polynomials are related to the Bernoulli and Euler polynomials, but they are found to possess far more interesting properties, primarily due to the convergence of the coefficients. One interesting application of the new polynomials is the re-interpretation of the Euler-Maclaurin summation formula, which yields a new regularisation formula.