Complex Partial Fraction Decomposition

complex numberspartial fractionspolynomialsroots-of-unity

The question I need help with is:

Prove that
$$\sum_{k=0}^{6}\frac{1-z^{2}}{1-2z\cos\left(\frac{2k\pi}{7}\right)+z^{2}}=\frac{7(z^{7}+1)}{1-z^{7}}$$

I have already tried brute forcing this by combining the LHS into a single fraction. While this worked, it is an extremely long proof.

I was wondering if there is a more elegant approach that uses partial fractions. I tried decomposing each term in the sum of the LHS into $$-1+\frac{B}{z-\omega^{k}}+\frac{C}{z-\omega^{-k}}$$but this gave me very complicated expressions for constants B and C so I gave up.

Best Answer

Following the posts that were first to appear we introduce $\zeta=\exp(2\pi i/n)$ and seek to evaluate

$$S = \sum_{k=0}^{n-1} \frac{1-z^2}{(z-\zeta^k)(z-1/\zeta^k)}.$$

where presumably $z$ is not a power of $\zeta$ and no singularity appears. Introducing

$$f(v) = \frac{1-z^2}{(z-v)(z-1/v)} \frac{n/v}{v^n-1} = \frac{1-z^2}{(z-v)(vz-1)} \frac{n}{v^n-1} \\ = -\frac{1}{z} \frac{1-z^2}{(v-z)(v-1/z)} \frac{n}{v^n-1}$$

we have

$$S = \sum_{k=0}^{n-1} \mathrm{Res}_{v=\zeta^k} f(v).$$

The residue at infinity is zero by inspection and since residues sum to zero we get

$$S = - \mathrm{Res}_{v=z} f(v) - \mathrm{Res}_{v=1/z} f(v).$$

This yields

$$\frac{1}{z} \frac{1-z^2}{z-1/z} \frac{n}{z^n-1} + \frac{1}{z} \frac{1-z^2}{1/z-z} \frac{n}{1/z^n-1} \\ = \frac{1-z^2}{z^2-1} \frac{n}{z^n-1} + \frac{1-z^2}{1-z^2} \frac{z^n n}{1-z^n} = \frac{n}{1-z^n} + \frac{z^n n}{1-z^n}.$$

We obtain

$$\bbox[5px,border:2px solid #00A000]{ S=n\frac{1+z^n}{1-z^n}.}$$

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