Modular relations involving generalized digamma functions

Abstract

Generalized digamma functions ψk(x), studied by Ramanujan, Deninger, Dilcher, Kanemitsu, Ishibashi etc., appear as the Laurent series coefficients of the zeta function associated to an indefinite quadratic form. In this paper, a modular relation of the form Fk(α)=Fk(1/α) containing infinite series of ψk(x), or, equivalently, between the generalized Stieltjes constants γk(x), is obtained for any k∈N. When k=0, it reduces to a famous transformation given on page 220 of Ramanujan's Lost Notebook. For k=1, an integral containing Riemann's Ξ-function, and corresponding to the aforementioned modular relation, is also obtained along with its asymptotic expansions as α→0 and α→∞. Carlitz-type and Guinand-type finite modular relations involving ψ(m)j(x),0≤j≤k,m∈N∪{0}, are also derived, thereby extending previous results on the digamma function ψ(x). The extension of Guinand's result for ψ(m)j(x),m≥2, involves an interesting combinatorial sum h(r) over integer partitions of 2r into exactly r parts. This sum plays a crucial role in an inversion formula needed for this extension. This formula has connection with the inversion formula for the inverse of a triangular Toeplitz matrix. The modular relation for ψ′j(x) is subtle and requires delicate analysis.