Polylogarithmic functional equations: A new category of results developed with the help of computer algebra (MACSYMA)

Abstract

The interrelation of polylogarithmic functional equations and certain numerical results, known as “ladders”, is discussed, and leads to a consideration of three new, single-variable functional equations at the second order. Two of these families each contain six leading terms whose interrelationship constitutes a constraint on the integration process, but the third has only a single leading term with no such constraints. It is shown how this functional equation can be integrated to the third order, and the process reduced to an algorithm — actually a sequence of instructions — for incorporation into a computer program for symbolic manipulation. The procedure utilizes results from Kummer's equations to cancel out, in sequence, terms which do not vanish, or do vanish, with the variablez. Arguments are all of the form ±z ^p(1−z)^q(1+z)^r, and the process is “algebraicized” by using a (p,q,r,s) notation (withs=±1) to represent such terms. Application of the procedure leads to an integration to the fourth and fifth orders, the latter exhibiting 55 transcendental terms. The first step for the transition to the sixth order can also be achieved but the subsequent steps are frustrated by the restricted forms that the Kummer equations take at the fifth order — it is not possible to create the needed equations in a form which vanishes withz; this corresponding to the elimination of the ζ(5) constant in the extension of the numerically determined ladders to the sixth and higher orders. The existence of the higher-order ladders strongly suggests functional equations af these orders, but the present process has not yet been successful in finding them. The new equations have, however, produced ladders that were inaccessible from Kummer's equations, and had heretofore been only obtainable numerically, up to the fifth order. The method which was developed should be capable of generalization to other systems of equations characterized by the appearance of arguments with recurrent factors. Some new feature, however, will need to be determined before the barrier to the sixth order can be breached.