Series expansion for $\text{Li}_2(x)$? Why is this wrong

calculusintegrationsequences-and-series

In this answer it is claimed by @ClaudeLeibovici that $\text{Li}_2(x)$ has the following power series expansion:
$$S(x)=\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{\psi ^{(0)}\left(\frac{n+3}{2}\right)-\psi
^{(0)}\left(\frac{n+2}{2}\right)}{2(n+1)}\,x^{2n+1}$$

However, this seems wrong to me, since
$$S(1)\simeq0.5797622205888950\dots$$
$$\text{Li}_2(1)\simeq1.6449340668482\dots$$
and this is just one counterexample, they differ for every value of $x$. To get the series, they suggest to take the series for $-\frac{\log (1-x)}{x}$ and integrate termwise, but the series expansion for this function is
$$-\frac{\log (1-x)}{x}=\sum_{k=1}^{\infty}\frac{x^{k-1}}{k}$$
which, when integrated from $0$ to $z$ leads to
$$\text{Li}_2(z)=\sum_{k=1}^{\infty}\frac{z^k}{k^2}$$ which is just the definition of the dilogarithm! So no digamma functions at all!

Also, if you remove the $2$ in the denominator of the series (it could be a typo), the result is still wrong.

Do you have any clue of what is going on here? Am I missing something? Or is this just wrong?

Best Answer

One view for the series: $$ S_{2}(x)=\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{\psi ^{(0)}\left(\frac{n+3}{2}\right)-\psi ^{(0)}\left(\frac{n+2}{2}\right)}{2(n+1)}\,x^{2n+1}. $$ Using an integral definition for $\psi(x)$ then $$ \psi ^{(0)}\left(\frac{n+3}{2}\right) - \psi^{(0)}\left(\frac{n+2}{2}\right) = 2 \, \int_{0}^{1} \frac{u^{n+1} \, du}{1+u}. $$ With this the series reduces to $$ S_{2}(x) = - \frac{1}{x} \, \int_{0}^{1} \frac{\ln(1-x^2 \, u) \, du}{1+u}. $$ This can be evaluated further and is $$ S_{2}(x) = \frac{1}{x} \, \left( \text{Li}_{2}\left(\frac{1}{1+x^2}\right) - \text{Li}_{2}\left(\frac{1-x^2}{1+x^2}\right) - \ln(1-x^2) \, \ln\left(\frac{2 \, x^2}{1+x^2}\right) \right). $$

An example of the use of this result is: $$ S_{2}(1) = \text{Li}_{2}\left(\frac{1}{2}\right) = \frac{\zeta(2) - \ln^{2}(2)}{2}. $$

Using integration by parts on the integral for $S_{2}(x)$ leads to \begin{align} - x \, S_{2}(x) &= \int_{0}^{1} \frac{\ln(1-x^2 \, u) \, du}{1+u} \\ &= \left[ \ln(1+u) \, \ln(1-x^2 \, u) + x^2 \, \int \frac{\ln(1+u) \, du}{1 - x^2 \, u} \right]_{0}^{1} \\ &= \left[ \ln(1+u) \, \ln(1-x^2 \, u) - \ln(1+u) \, \ln\left(\frac{1-x^2 \, u}{1+x^2}\right) - \text{Li}_{2}\left(\frac{(1+u) \, x^2}{1+x^2}\right) \right]_{0}^{1} \\ &= - \left( \text{Li}_{2}\left(\frac{2 \, x^2}{1+x^2}\right) - \text{Li}_{2}\left(\frac{x^2}{1+x^2}\right) - \ln 2 \, \ln(1+x^2) \right) \end{align} which gives $$ S_{2}(x) = \frac{1}{x} \, \left( \text{Li}_{2}\left(\frac{2 \, x^2}{1+x^2}\right) - \text{Li}_{2}\left(\frac{x^2}{1+x^2}\right) - \ln 2 \, \ln(1+x^2) \right). $$ With this form there may be a transformation that can be used that could reduce $S_{2}(x)$ further. It does not appear that it could be reduced to $\text{Li}_{2}(x)$.