Representation of hypergeometric products of higher nesting depths in difference rings (Q6115788)

This paper describes an algorithmic approach for the simplification of indefinite nested product expressions. The machinery is based on Karr's difference ring theory. The authors refine this theory by introducing so-called R\(\Pi\)-extensions. This allows them to establish some structural results that are indispensable for properly representing the product expressions in question. The kind of representations that are computed by their algorithm share some nice properties: all the constituents of the resulting expression are algebraically independent among each other, and the zero-recognition property holds, i.e., an expression is zero if and only if it is the zero-expression. The method is illustrated by several examples at the end of the paper, for which the authors use an implementation of their algorithm in Mathematica (in their package Nested Products). In one such example the hypergeometric nested product \[ \frac12 \prod_{k=1}^{n-1} \frac1{36} \left(\prod_{i=1}^{k-1} \frac{(i+1)(i+2)}{4(2i+3)^2}\right) \] is rewritten as the following product of simpler, and algebraically independent expressions \[ \frac{\displaystyle 9 \, (2^n)^5 \, \left(\prod_{k=1}^n \left(k+\frac32\right)\right)^{\!4} \left(\prod_{k=1}^n \prod_{i=1}^k (i+1)\right)^{\!2}}{\displaystyle (2n+3)^2 \, (3^n)^2 \, \left(2^{\textstyle\binom{n+1}{2}}\right)^{\!4} \left(\prod_{k=1}^n (k+1)\right)^{\!3} \left(\prod_{k=1}^n \prod_{i=1}^k \left(i+\frac32\right)\right)^{\!2}}, \] which is correct up to a multiplicative factor of \((n+1)\).