Find the area of the region enclosed by $\sin^p x+\sin^p y=\sin^p(x+y)$, the $x$-axis and the $y$-axis (comes from a probability question)

integrationjacobianspr.probabilitytrigonometric functions

Consider the graph of $\sin^p x+\sin^p y=\sin^p(x+y)$, where $x$ and $y$ are acute, and $p>1$.

Here are examples with, from left to right, $p=1.05,\space 1.25,\space 2,\space 4,\space 100$.

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Find the area of the region enclosed by the curve and the $x$-axis and the $y$-axis, in terms of $p$.

Context, and why I suspect the answer is $\left(1-\frac{1}{p^2}\right)\frac{\pi^2}{6}$

An MSE question by user @Nilotpal Sinha in effect asks, "A triangle's vertices are uniformly random points on a circle. The side lengths, in increasing order, are $a,b,c$. Given $p>1$, what is the probability that line segments of lengths $a^p,\space b^p,\space c^p$ could form a triangle? That is, what is $P(a^p+b^p\ge c^p)$ ?

Simulations (by @Nilotpal Sinha and myself) suggest that, elegantly, $P(a^p+b^p\ge c^p)=\frac{1}{p^2}$, which would imply that the area in this question is $\left(1-\frac{1}{p^2}\right)\frac{\pi^2}{6}$, as explained below.

Connection between the probability question and the area question (optional reading). Let $x,y,z$ be the angles opposite the sides with lengths $a,b,c$ respectively. Assuming the radius of the circle is $1$, the law of sines tells us that $a=2\sin x,\space b=2\sin y,\space c=2\sin (x+y)$. Since we are given $a<b<c$, the sample space is bounded by $x=0,\space y=x,\space x+2y=\pi$. For convenience, we double the sample space by including its reflection across $y=x$. Then $1-P(a^p+b^p\ge c^p)$ is the area of the region in this question, divided by the area of the (doubled) sample space, which is $\frac{\pi^2}{6}$.

Similarity with a recent question

This area question is similar to a recent question, "Find the area of the region enclosed by $\frac{\sin x}{\sin y}=\frac{\sin x+\sin y}{\sin(x+y)}$ and the $x$-axis". Both involve finding the area of a region defined by an implicit trigonometric function. I suspect this question is also non-trivial.

Best Answer

The conjecture is true, and it can be verified with fedja's method developed for your earlier question. Indeed, this method shows that $$P(\text{$a^p+b^p\ge c^p$ and $c>b>a$})=\left(\frac{\pi^2}{3!}\right)^{-1}2\int_1^{\infty}\left(\int_{E(t)}\frac{ds}{s}\right)\frac{dt}t,$$ where $$E(t):=\{s\in\mathbb{R}:\text{$1+t^p\geq s^p$ and $s>t$}\}.$$ Clearly, $$\int_{E(t)}\frac{ds}{s}=\log((1+t^p)^{1/p})-\log(t)=\frac{\log(1+t^{-p})}{p},$$ hence $$P(\text{$a^p+b^p\ge c^p$ and $c>b>a$})=\frac{12}{\pi^2}\int_1^{\infty}\frac{\log(1+t^{-p})}{pt}\,dt.$$ On the other hand, $$\log(1+t^{-p})=\sum_{k=1}^\infty\frac{(-1)^{k-1}}{k t^{kp}},\qquad t>1,\tag{1}$$ therefore $$P(\text{$a^p+b^p\ge c^p$ and $c>b>a$})=\frac{12}{\pi^2}\sum_{k=1}^\infty\frac{(-1)^{k-1}}{k^2 p^2}=\frac{1}{p^2}.$$

Added. In the last step, we used that $$\sum_{k=1}^\infty\frac{(-1)^{k-1}}{k^2}=\frac{\pi^2}{12},\tag{2}$$ which is equivalent to the solution of the Basel problem. On the other hand, for $p=1$, the probability in question equals $1$ by the triangle inequality, hence in that case the above calculation yields a proof of $(2)$. This was observed by the OP, and in a slightly different context by Nilotpal Sinha. In fact the triangle inequality allows us to eliminate both $(1)$ and $(2)$ from the above calculation. Namely, by a change of variable we can see that $$\int_1^{\infty}\log(1+t^{-p})\frac{dt}{t}$$ is proportional to $p^{-1}$, hence the probability sought is proportional to $p^{-2}$.

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