New properties of the Lerch's transcendent (Q344115)

Lerch's transcendent \(\Phi(z,s,a)\), also known as the Hurwitz-Lerch zeta function, is defined by \[ \Phi(z,s,a)=\sum_{m=0}^{\infty}\frac{z^m}{(m+a)^s}, \qquad a\neq 0,-1,-2,\ldots; \quad |z|<1; \quad |z|=1, \, \text{Re}\,s>1. \] For other values of its arguments, \(\Phi(z,s,a)\) is defined by analytic continuation. This can be achieved by means of integral representation \[ \Phi(z,s,a)=\frac{1}{\Gamma(s)}\int_0^{\infty} \frac{t^{s-1}e^{-at}}{1-ze^{-t}}\,dt, \] where \(\text{Re}\, s>0\), \(\text{Re}\, a>0\), \(z\in{\mathbb C}\setminus[1, \infty]\). Let \({\mathbb D}\) be the open unit disk \(0< |z|<1\) cut along the negative real axis, that is, \(-\pi<\arg(z)<\pi\). For positive integer values of the second argument, \(s=n\in\{1,2,\ldots\}\), the authors prove a special representation of \(\Phi(z,s,a)\) in terms of a principal value integral: \[ \Phi(z,n,a)=\frac{(-1)^n}{(n-1)!}\left\{P \int_0^{\infty\cdot e^{i\varphi}} \frac{t^{n-1}e^{at}}{ze^t-1}\,dt + \pi\frac{\partial^{n-1}}{\partial a^{n-1}}\Bigl(z^{-a}\cot(\pi a)\Bigr)\right\}, \] where \(\varphi=\arg(-\ln z)\), \(\text{Re}\,[(a-1)e^{i\varphi}]<0\), and the path of integration is along the ray \(\arg t=\varphi\). As a consequence, the authors derive a ``symmetry'' property: for \(z\in{\mathbb D}\setminus(0,1)\), \(a\not\in{\mathbb Z}\), and \(\varphi\) defined as above, \[ \Phi(z,n,a)+(-1)^nz^{-1}\Phi(z^{-1},n,1-a)=\frac{\pi(-1)^{n-1}}{(n-1)!}\, \frac{\partial^{n-1}}{\partial a^{n-1}}\Bigl(z^{-a}(\cot(\pi a)-\text{sgn}(\varphi)\,i)\Bigr), \] which remains true for \(|z|>1\), provided \(z\not\in (1, \infty)\) and also, by analytic continuation, for \(|z|=1\) with some exceptions at \(z=1\).