# A sine integral $\int_0^{\infty} \left(\frac{\sin x }{x }\right)^n\,\mathrm{d}x$

The following question comes from Some integral with sine post $$\int_0^{\infty} \left(\frac{\sin x }{x }\right)^n\,\mathrm{d}x$$ but now I'd be curious to know how to deal with it by methods of complex analysis.
Some suggestions, hints? Thanks!!!

Sis.

• This is related: math.stackexchange.com/questions/260574/… and this is too: math.stackexchange.com/questions/13344/… – Julien Feb 18 '13 at 22:27
• @PeterTamaroff You must be referring to the "Surprising sinc sums and integrals" by Baillie, Borwein and Borwein. ( pdf ) – Sasha Feb 18 '13 at 22:50
• Note that the integral has an interpretation of $2 f_{X_n}(0)$, where $X_n$ is the sum of $n$ uniform on $(-1,1)$ random variables, and $f_X(x)$ denotes the pdf. Using the central limit theorem, one can find large $n$ asymptotics, $\int_0^\infty \sin^n(x)/x^n \mathrm{d} x \approx \sqrt{\frac{3 \pi}{2 n}}$ – Sasha Feb 18 '13 at 23:00
• @Sasha Yes, indeed! Thank you. – Pedro Tamaroff Feb 18 '13 at 23:01

Here's another approach.

We have $$\begin{eqnarray*} \int_0^\infty dx\, \left(\frac{\sin x}{x}\right)^n &=& \lim_{\epsilon\to 0^+} \frac{1}{2} \int_{-\infty}^\infty dx\, \left(\frac{\sin x}{x-i\epsilon}\right)^n \\ &=& \lim_{\epsilon\to 0^+} \frac{1}{2} \int_{-\infty}^\infty dx\, \frac{1}{(x-i\epsilon)^n} \left(\frac{e^{i x}-e^{-i x}}{2i}\right)^n \\ &=& \lim_{\epsilon\to 0^+} \frac{1}{2} \frac{1}{(2i)^n} \int_{-\infty}^\infty dx\, \frac{1}{(x-i\epsilon)^n} \sum_{k=0}^n (-1)^k {n \choose k} e^{i x(n-2k)} \\ &=& \lim_{\epsilon\to 0^+} \frac{1}{2} \frac{1}{(2i)^n} \sum_{k=0}^n (-1)^k {n \choose k} \int_{-\infty}^\infty dx\, \frac{e^{i x(n-2k)}}{(x-i\epsilon)^n}. \end{eqnarray*}$$ If $n-2k \ge 0$ we close the contour in the upper half-plane and pick up the residue at $x=i\epsilon$. Otherwise we close the contour in the lower half-plane and pick up no residues. The upper limit of the sum is thus $\lfloor n/2\rfloor$. Therefore, using the Cauchy differentiation formula, we find $$\begin{eqnarray*} \int_0^\infty dx\, \left(\frac{\sin x}{x}\right)^n &=& \frac{1}{2} \frac{1}{(2i)^n} \sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor n/2\rfloor} (-1)^k {n \choose k} \frac{2\pi i}{(n-1)!} \left.\frac{d^{n-1}}{d x^{n-1}} e^{i x(n-2k)}\right|_{x=0} \\ &=& \frac{1}{2} \frac{1}{(2i)^n} \sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor n/2\rfloor} (-1)^k {n \choose k} \frac{2\pi i}{(n-1)!} (i(n-2k))^{n-1} \\ &=& \frac{\pi}{2^n (n-1)!} \sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor n/2\rfloor} (-1)^k {n \choose k} (n-2k)^{n-1}. \end{eqnarray*}$$ The sum can be written in terms of the hypergeometric function but the result is not particularly enlightening.

• +1 for reminding me of the Irwin-Hall distribution. The sum you derives is exactly the $2 f_X(0)$, where $X$ is the Irwin-Hall random variable. – Sasha Feb 19 '13 at 1:09
• @Sasha: Indeed it appears that the integral is $\frac{\pi}{2}f_X(\frac{n}{2},n)$. Thank you for informing me of this interesting connection! – user26872 Feb 19 '13 at 2:11
• @oen: good shot! Long time I haven't seen you around! So, welcome! :-) (+1) – user 1357113 Feb 19 '13 at 9:33
• @Chris'ssisterandpals: Glad to help. Your questions often have connections to more areas of mathematics than it appears at first glance, which make them very interesting indeed. – user26872 Feb 19 '13 at 11:58

Just to verify oen's post (since there is a post with a different answer), I will post the answer I got.

$|\sin(z)|\le e^{|\mathrm{Im}(z)|}$; therefore, on the strip $|\mathrm{Im}(z)|\le1$, we have $|\sin(z)|\le e$. Thus, $\left(\frac{\sin(z)}{z}\right)^n$ vanishes as $|z|\to\infty$ in that strip and therefore, $$\int_{-\infty}^\infty\left(\frac{\sin(z)}{z}\right)^n\mathrm{d}z =\int_{-\infty-i}^{\infty-i}\left(\frac{\sin(z)}{z}\right)^n\mathrm{d}z\tag{1}$$ Next define two contours $\gamma^+$ and $\gamma^-$. $\gamma^+$ goes from $-R-i$ to $R-i$ then circles back through the upper half plane along $|z+i|=R$. $\gamma^-$ goes from $-R-i$ to $R-i$ then circles back through the lower half plane along $|z+i|=R$.

Using the binomial theorem, we get $$\left(\frac{\sin(z)}{z}\right)^n=\frac1{(2iz)^n}\sum_{k=0}^n(-1)^k\binom{n}{k}e^{(n-2k)iz}\tag{2}$$ Integrate the terms where $n-2k\ge0$ along $\gamma^+$ and the others along $\gamma^-$. Since $\gamma^-$ doesn't enclose any singularities, we can ignore that integral. Therefore, \begin{align} \int_0^\infty\left(\frac{\sin(z)}{z}\right)^n\mathrm{d}z &=\frac12\int_{\gamma^+}\frac1{(2iz)^n}\sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}(-1)^k\binom{n}{k}e^{(n-2k)iz}\mathrm{d}z\\ &=\frac{\pi i}{(2i)^n}\sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}(-1)^k\binom{n}{k}\mathrm{Res}\left(\frac{e^{(n-2k)iz}}{z^n},0\right)\\ &=\frac{\pi i}{(2i)^n}\sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}(-1)^k\binom{n}{k}\frac{(n-2k)^{n-1}i^{n-1}}{(n-1)!}\\ &=\frac{\pi}{2^n(n-1)!}\sum_{k=0}^{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}(-1)^k\binom{n}{k}(n-2k)^{n-1}\tag{3} \end{align}

• I know this is a 5 year old answer but I am wondering why you chose this contour over a circular or semicircular one, for example. I know how to do the case $n=1$ with semicircular contours, but it wouldn't immediately come to me why not to use the same contour for arbitrary $n.$ Really apreciate it if you can clarify your thought process here, this is such a clean answer. – Hobbyist May 13 '18 at 11:12

I'll write $I = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \left(\frac{\sin z}{z} \right)^n dz$

First, to simplify matters let's take $n$ odd and $\geq 3$. Let $C_{\epsilon}^+$ be the contour along the real line that takes a semicircular detour into the upper half plane about the origin, and let $C_{\epsilon}^-$ be the same for the lower half plane. We use continuity of the integrand to argue that $$I = \lim_{\epsilon \rightarrow 0} \int_{C_{\epsilon}^{\pm}} = \frac{1}{2} \lim_{\epsilon \rightarrow 0} \left( \int_{C_{\epsilon}^+} + \int_{C_{\epsilon}^-} \right)$$ Now think about $(\sin x)^n$: it's a sum of exponential terms of the form $e^{i l x}$ for $-n \leq l \leq n$ with some coefficients. You should convince yourself that any $l < 0$ term is killed by $\int_{C_{\epsilon}^-}$ and any $l > 0$ term is killed by $\int_{C_{\epsilon}^+}$. Moreover by completing these contours with large semicircles, you can derive ($l > 0$): $$\int_{C_{\epsilon}^{\mp}} \frac{e^{\pm i l x}}{x^n} dx = \mp 2 \pi i \frac{(\pm i l)^{n-1}}{(n-1)!}$$ Summing everything up and noticing that there is no $\epsilon$ dependence, and keeping track of signs (which I failed to do on a first pass) we've shown that, $$I = \frac{\pi }{2^{n-1} (n-1)!} \sum_{l = 0}^{(n-1)/2} (-1)^{n-1-l}\left(\begin{array}{c}n \\ l \end{array} \right) (n-2l)^{n-1}$$ I hope that wasn't too much (or too little).

• You've written $I$ to be twice the asked integral. However, when $n=2$, your answer gives $-\pi$ as the integral of a positive function. The problem seems to be that the exponent of $-1$ has an extraneous $n-1$. – robjohn Feb 19 '13 at 11:05
• @robjohn: Since $n$ is odd by assumption $(-1)^{n-1} = 1$. (+1) to your different approach. – user26872 Feb 19 '13 at 12:05
• @oen: Ah, I hadn't noticed that this answer was restricted to odd $n$. That assumption doesn't seem to be used in any part of the proof. Thanks for the upvote; I made my answer CW in hopes that it would not steal any votes. – robjohn Feb 19 '13 at 12:14
• @robjohn: That is very considerate, but your answer deserves upvotes! – user26872 Feb 19 '13 at 12:27
• @oen: I just looked more closely at your answer and I see it is a different approach from mine. You changed the integrand where I changed the contour. Perhaps I will remove the CW :-) – robjohn Feb 19 '13 at 12:37

I have a generalized elementary method for this problem，If f (x) is an even function, and the period is $$\pi$$,we have: $$\int_{0}^\infty f(x)\frac{\sin^nx}{x^n}dx=\int_{0}^\frac{\pi}{2}f(x)g_n(x)\sin^nxdx \qquad (1)$$

Where the $$g_n(x)$$ in (1) is as follows $$g_n(x)=\begin{cases}\frac{(-1)^{n-1}}{(n-1)!}\frac{d^{n-1}}{dx^{n-1}}\left(\csc x\right),& \text{for n is odd n\in\Bbb N and}\\[2ex] \frac{(-1)^{n-1}}{(n-1)!}\frac{d^{n-1}}{dx^{n-1}}\left(\cot x\right),& \text{ for n is even .} \end{cases}$$ —————————————————————————————————————————————————— Proof: \begin{align} \int_{0}^\infty f(x)\frac{\sin^nx}{x^n}dx&=\sum_{k=0}^\infty\int_{k\pi}^{(2k+1)\frac{\pi}{2}}f(x)\left(\frac{\sin x}{x}\right)^ndx+\sum_{k=1}^\infty\int_{(2k-1)\frac{\pi}{2}}^{k\pi}f(x)\left(\frac{\sin x}{x}\right)^ndx\\ &=\sum_{k=0}^\infty\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}f(x+k\pi)\left(\frac{\sin (x+k\pi)}{x+k\pi}\right)^ndx+\sum_{k=1}^\infty\int_{-\frac{\pi}{2}}^{0}f(x+k\pi)\left(\frac{\sin (x+k\pi)}{x+k\pi}\right)^ndx\\ &=\sum_{k=0}^\infty(-1)^{nk}\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}f(x)\left(\frac{\sin x}{x+k\pi}\right)^ndx+\sum_{k=1}^\infty(-1)^{nk}\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}f(-x)\left(\frac{\sin x}{x-k\pi}\right)^ndx\\ &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}f(x)\sin^nx\left(\frac{1}{x^n}+\sum_{k=1}^\infty(-1)^{nk}\left[\frac{1}{(x+k\pi)^n}+\frac{1}{(x-k\pi)^n}\right]\right)dx\\ &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}f(x)\sin^nxg_n(x)dx \end{align} We know by the Fourier series \begin{align} \csc x&=\frac{1}{x}+\sum_{k=1}^\infty(-1)^k\left(\frac{1}{x+k\pi}+\frac{1}{x-k\pi}\right)\\ \end{align} and \begin{align} \cot x&=\frac{1}{x}+\sum_{k=1}^\infty\left(\frac{1}{x+k\pi}+\frac{1}{x-k\pi}\right) \end{align} Take the n-1 order derivative,thus we obtain $$g_n(x)$$. —————————————————————————————————————————————————— Example: \begin{align} (1.)\qquad\int_{0}^{\infty}\frac{\sin^3x}{x}dx&=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\sin^2xg_1(x)\sin xdx\\ &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\sin^2x\frac{1}{\sin x}\sin xdx\\ &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\sin^2xdx\\ &=\frac{\pi}{4}\\ \end{align} \begin{align} (2.) \int_{0}^{\infty}(1+\cos^2x)\frac{\sin^2x}{x^2}dx &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}(1+\cos^2x)g_2(x)\sin^2xdx\\ &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}(1+\cos^2x)\left(-\frac{d}{dx}\cot x\right)\sin^2xdx\\ &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}(1+\cos^2x)\left(\frac{1}{\sin^2x}\right)\sin^2xdx\\ &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}(1+\cos^2x)dx\\ &=\frac{\pi}{2}+\frac{\pi}{4}=\frac{3\pi}{4}\\ \end{align} \begin{align} (3.) \int_{0}^{\infty}\frac{1}{(1+\cos^2x)}\frac{\sin^3x}{x^3}dx &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\frac{\sin^3x}{(1+\cos^2x)}g_3(x)dx\\ &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\frac{\sin^3x}{(1+\cos^2x)}\left(\frac{1}{2}\frac{d^2}{dx^2}(\csc x)\right)dx\\ &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\frac{\sin^3x}{(1+\cos^2x)}\frac{(1+\cos^2x)}{2\sin^3x}dx\\ &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\frac{1}{2}dx=\frac{\pi}{4}\\ (4.) \int_{0}^{\infty}\frac{1}{3+\cos2x}\frac{\sin^2x}{x^2}dx &=\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\frac{1}{3+\cos2x}dx =\frac{\pi}{4\sqrt{2}}\\ \end{align}