[Math] Prove ${\large\int}_{-1}^1\frac{dx}{\sqrt[3]{9+4\sqrt5\,x}\ \left(1-x^2\right)^{2/3}}=\frac{3^{3/2}}{2^{4/3}5^{5/6}\pi }\Gamma^3\left(\frac13\right)$

calculusclosed-formdefinite integralshypergeometric functionspecial functions

Here is one more conjecture I discovered numerically:
$${\large\int}_{-1}^1\frac{dx}{\sqrt[3]{9+4\sqrt5\,x}\ \left(1-x^2\right)^{\small2/3}}\stackrel{\color{#808080}?}=\frac{3^{\small3/2}}{2^{\small4/3}\,5^{\small5/6}\,\pi }\Gamma^3\!\!\left(\tfrac13\right)$$
How can we prove it?

Note that $\sqrt[3]{9+4\sqrt5}=\phi^2$.
Mathematica can evaluate this integral, but gives a large expression in terms of Gauss and Appel hypergeometric functions of irrational arguments.

Best Answer

As suggested by Chen Wang, this integral is related to an integral of the form $$ \int_0^1 \frac{dx}{ \sqrt{1-x} \; x^{2/3} (1-zx)^{1/3} } $$ which appears in this forum's Question 879089 by the same author.

Here's a more direct route than given by Kirill, without conversions between definite integrals and hypergeometric functions. A differential $dx \left/ \left(\sqrt[3]{A+Bx} \, (1-x^2)^{2/3}\right)\right.$ has four poles of fractional order, two at $x = \pm 1$ of order $2/3$, and two at $x = \infty$ and $x = -B/A$ of order $1/3$. Hence the differential is invariant under an involution in the form of a fractional linear transformation that switches $-1 \leftrightarrow +1$ and $\infty \leftrightarrow -B/A$. To exploit this symmetry it is convenient to use a coordinate $u = (cx+1)/(x+c)$: for any $c$ we have $u=\pm 1$ at $x = \pm 1$ and $u = c$ at $x = \infty$, and we choose $c>1$ so that $u=-c$ at $x=-B/A$. Explicitly, this change of variable gives $$ {\large\int}_{-1}^1 \frac{dx}{\sqrt[3]{c^2+1+2cx}\ \left(1-x^2\right)^{\small2/3}} = {\large\int}_{-1}^1 \frac{du}{\sqrt[3]{c^2-u^2}\ \left(1-u^2\right)^{\small2/3}} . $$ By symmetry the second $\int_{-1}^1$ is $2\int_0^1$ of the same integrand, and then the change of variable $u^2 = t$ gives $$ {\large\int}_0^1 \frac{dt}{\sqrt{t} \, (c^2-t)^{\small1/3} (1-t)^{\small2/3}}. $$ Now integrating with respect to $X=1-t$ instead of $t$ gives $$ {\large\int}_0^1 \frac{dX}{\sqrt{1-X} \; X^{2/3} \left(c^2-1+X\right)^{\small1/3}}, $$ and we have reached an integral of the desired form.

In the present case we take $c = \frac12 \! \sqrt 5$. Then $c^2+1 + 2cx = (9 + 4\sqrt{5}x)/4$, so our integral is $4^{1/3}$ times the one with $\sqrt[3]{9 + 4\sqrt{5}x}$ in the denominator. Hence $c^2-1 = 1/4$, so we gain another factor of $4^{1/3}$ and we've reached the integral in the first display with $z=-4$. Vladimir Reshetnikov already noted in a comment to his question that the integral seemed to have an exact value at $z = -4$, and the analysis I gave in my answer there (or Kirill's answer here) leads to the period of a CM elliptic curve with $j$-invariant $146329141248 \sqrt{5} - 327201914880$; this curve is related by $5$-isogeny with a curve of $j$-invariant zero, and thus has a period proportional to a Beta integral.