Two parameters for Ramanujan's theta-functions and their explicit values (Q2478055): Difference between revisions

It is a classical story, going back to S.~Ramanujan, to provide algebraic dependencies for the values of functions coming from the modular world at quadratic irrationalities \(\tau\) in the upper half-plane \(\operatorname {Im}\tau>0\). The paper under review discusses these matters in the case of the functions \[ \begin{gathered} f(q)=\prod_{k=1}^\infty\bigl(1-(-1)^kq^k\bigr), \quad \phi(q)=\frac{f^2(q)}{f(-q^2)}=1+2\sum_{n=1}^\infty q^{n^2} \\ \text{and}\quad \psi(q)=\frac{f^2(-q^2)}{f(-q)}=\sum_{n=0}^\infty q^{n(n+1)/2}, \end{gathered} \] where \(q=e^{2\pi i\tau}\), that is, \(| q| <1\). In particular, explicit algebraic values are given for some values of the functions \[ f_k^\pm(q)=\frac{f(\pm q)}{q^{(k-1)/24}f(\pm q^k)}, \quad \phi_k^\pm(q)=\frac{\phi(\pm q)}{\phi(\pm q^k)} \quad\text{and}\quad \psi_k^\pm(q)=\frac{\psi(\pm q)}{q^{(k-1)/8}\psi(\pm q^k)} \] at the points of the form \(q=e^{-\pi\sqrt{n/k}}\), where \(k\)~is a positive integer, and either~\(n\) or \(1/n\)~is a positive integer; results for the last functional family were earlier established by \textit{J. Yi} [Construction and application of modular equations, Ph.\,D.\ thesis, University of Illinois-Champaign (2004); J.\ Math.\ Anal.\ Appl. 292, No. 2, 381--400 (2004; Zbl 1060.11027)]. These intermediate evaluations are finally applied to compute several explicit values of the functions \(\psi(\pm q)\), like \[ \psi(e^{-\pi/5}) =\frac{2^{3/8}\pi^{1/4}e^{\pi/40}}{\Gamma(3/4)\,(5+\sqrt5)^{1/2}(5^{1/4}+1)}, \] as well as explicit values of quotients of the function \(\phi(q)\), of the Rogers-Ramanujan continued fraction and of Ramanujan's cubic continued fraction.