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In equation (130) of this page, the identity $$\lim_{n \to \infty} \sum_{k=2}^{n-2} \zeta(k) \zeta(n-k) x^{k-1} = x^{-1} - \psi_{0}(-x) - \gamma \label{1} \tag{1} $$ is stated. Here, $\zeta(\cdot)$ is the Riemann zeta function.

It is mentioned, furthermore, that this identity can be derived from the following generating function of the Riemann zeta function: $$\sum_{k=2}^{\infty} \zeta(k) x^{k-1} = - \psi_{0}(1-x) - \gamma. \label{2} \tag{2} $$

Equation \eqref{2} is also mentioned in equation (26) on p. 11 of the following paper (PDF) by Borwein et al.

My question is:

How does one derive equation \eqref{1} from equation \eqref{2} ?

Note: I've also asked this question on MSE.

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    $\begingroup$ Please use a high-level tag like "nt.number-theory". I added this tag now. Regarding high-level tags, see meta.mathoverflow.net/q/1075 $\endgroup$
    – GH from MO
    Commented Sep 1 at 16:12

1 Answer 1

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The right-hand sides of $(1)$ and $(2)$ are the same, because $$\psi_0(1-x)=\psi_0(-x)-x^{-1}.$$ Hence we only need to show that the left-hand sides of $(1)$ and $(2)$ are also the same. That is, for any complex number $x$ with $|x|<1$, we need to show that $$\lim_{n\to\infty}\left|\sum_{k=2}^{n-2} \zeta(k) \zeta(n-k) x^{k-1}-\sum_{k=2}^\infty\zeta(k)x^{k-1}\right|=0.$$ By the triangle inequality, the expression under the limit does not exceed $$\sum_{k=2}^{n-2} \zeta(k)\bigl(\zeta(n-k)-1\bigr)|x|^{k-1}+\sum_{k=n-1}^\infty\zeta(k)|x|^{k-1}.$$ It suffices to show that both $k$-sums here tend to zero as $n\to\infty$. This is clear for the second $k$-sum, so we shall focus on the first $k$-sum.

Let us fix an integer $m\geq 2$ and restrict to $n\geq m+3$. We shall use the obvious decomposition \begin{align*}\sum_{k=2}^{n-2} \zeta(k)\bigl(\zeta(n-k)-1\bigr)|x|^{k-1}=&\sum_{k=2}^m \zeta(k)\bigl(\zeta(n-k)-1\bigr)|x|^{k-1}\\+&\sum_{k=m+1}^{n-2} \zeta(k)\bigl(\zeta(n-k)-1\bigr)|x|^{k-1}.\end{align*} On the right-hand side, the first $k$-sum tends to zero, because $\zeta(n-k)$ tends to $1$ for each $k\in\{2,3,\dots,m\}$. Therefore, $$\limsup_{n\to\infty}\sum_{k=2}^{n-2} \zeta(k)\bigl(\zeta(n-k)-1\bigr)|x|^{k-1}\leq\zeta(2)\bigl(\zeta(2)-1\bigr)\sum_{k=m+1}^\infty|x|^{k-1}.$$ Now the right-hand side can be made arbitrarily small by choosing $m$ sufficiently large, while the left-hand side is independent of $m$. So the left-hand side is zero, that is, $$\lim_{n\to\infty}\sum_{k=2}^{n-2} \zeta(k)\bigl(\zeta(n-k)-1\bigr)|x|^{k-1}=0.$$ The proof is complete.

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