A bug in Wolfram Alpha about an infinite series

binomial-coefficientsclosed-formsequences-and-serieswolfram alpha

While verifying this MSE answer, I may have come across a bug in Wolfram Alpha. It evaluates the sum below as,

$$\qquad A=\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{\binom{2n}{n}^2}{16^n(n+1)^3}=1.03928049\color{red}{51}\dots$$

(press the "More digits" button) while it evaluates this generalized hypergeometric as,

$$B = \,_4F_3\big(\tfrac12,\tfrac12,1,1;\,2,2,2;\,1\big) = 1.03928049\color{red}{67}\dots\quad$$

The problem is it is supposed to be the case that

$$A=B=C$$

In fact, as the MSE answer points out, the closed-form is,

$$C=\frac{48}{\pi}+16\ln(2)-\frac{32G}{\pi}-16= 1.03928049\color{red}{67}\dots\quad$$

so that is the correct numerical value.

Q. Why does WolframAlpha give a wrong numerical evaluation for $A$?

Context of problem: I need 20, 30, or more correct digits for an integer relations algorithm to work and find a closed-form.

Screenshot below. This is about 100 digits, everything after the $8$th decimal place is wrong.

enter image description here

Best Answer

The infinite series $\sum_{k\ge 1}a_k$ can be approximated by summing its first $n$ terms, but this may require very large $n$ for high accuracy. Since the $n$th term in $A$ is $O(1/n^4)$, the $n$th partial sum has a $O(1/n^3)$ error term. It therefore takes about $1000$ terms to get $9$ decimal places right. Or does it?

I don't know much about series acceleration of hypergeometric functions, or any methods WA might use to accelerate arbitrary series it didn't necessarily recognise add hypergeometric. But no general method accelerates all "logarithmically convergent" sequences, of which $A$ is an example. So go easy on WA.

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