1. Preliminary
The traditional analytical approach for evaluating integrals relies on a toolkit of substitution and reduction formulas through integration by parts. The results of such derivations, accumulated and compiled over centuries, resulted in a large number of formulas and are now available in encyclopedic handbooks [
1,
2], which serve as the authoritative reference for practitioners seeking a specific solution.
In the meantime, the modern algorithmic approach is embodied by symbolic computation packages such as Maple [
3] and Mathematica [
4], which implement sophisticated procedures, for instance the Risch-Norman algorithm, to find antiderivatives automatically [
5]. These packages are highly effective in practice and routinely succeed in integrals for which manual derivation would be prohibitively laborious. Their integration engines typically combine several distinct algorithms and extensive rule tables: however, the internal criteria governing which procedure is invoked for a given integral are generally not exposed to the user [
6]. In essence, while immensely powerful, these packages offer limited insight into the analytical relationships between solutions, mathematical structure of the solutions, or a methodology for manual derivation.
The evaluation of definite integrals involving generalized hypergeometric functions [
7,
8] continues to be an active line of inquiry, as illustrated by a recent study that evaluates a broad class of such integrals by means of generalized Watson-type summation formulas [
9]. In modern mathematical physics, related integrals with integer and half-integer parameters are frequently analyzed using harmonic polylogarithms [
10] and special-function expansions, particularly in the study of Bessel-type functions [
11] and Feynman integrals [
12,
13]. Another work combines integration-by-parts with differential equations to reduce parametrized families of Feynman integrals to a basis of master integrals, using a projective-geometry formulation in Feynman-parameter space [
14]. A related generating-function approach has been used to solve integration-by-parts relations for a family of one-loop integrals indexed jointly by tensor structure and propagator-power distribution [
15].
The evaluation of binomial integrals of the form
is a classical problem in integral calculus with importance in physics and engineering [
16,
17]. The theoretical limits of this problem were established by Chebyshev, whose theorem delineates the specific conditions under which these integrals can be expressed in terms of elementary functions [
18]. The subclass
of the binomial integrals constitutes a classical yet nontrivial problem in integral calculus, particularly when the parameters
p and
r extend beyond simple non-negative integers. Such cases arise naturally in various applications: for instance, the integral
appears in the computation of surface areas of solids of revolution [
19]. Some of the formulas in Sects. 2.110 and 2.27 of [
2] can be interpreted as special cases of
.
Despite the breadth of existing results [
1,
20], several limitations remain apparent in both pedagogical and research-oriented treatments of the integral
. For instance, standard substitution techniques frequently lead to case-by-case calculations, which tend to obscure the underlying analytical structure of the solutions [
19]. In addition, reduction formulas obtained through integration by parts often encounter ‘walls’ that interrupt recursive evaluation, requiring problem-dependent initial conditions. Furthermore, although closed-form expressions are available for many individual cases, these results are typically scattered across tables or derived in isolation [
1,
2] A unification effort has recently been undertaken for another classical family of parametrized integrals, Lobachevsky’s integrals, by combining parameter differentiation, partial fraction decomposition, and series expansion into a single systematic derivation covering all convergent cases [
21], underscoring the continuing value of organizing scattered classical results within one coherent analytical framework.
In this paper, we develop a unified analytical and recursive framework for the systematic evaluation of . The approach in this paper is based on a detailed analysis of the parameter plane . We identify five lines , , , , and along which the integral admits direct closed-form evaluation. These cases provide a natural set of initial conditions that anchor the recursive structure of the problem. Building upon these initial conditions, we derive four general recursion formulas that enable the evaluation of at any admissible point in the parameter plane while systematically bypassing the recursion barriers encountered, mostly on the line , in conventional approaches.
The main contributions of this work can be summarized as follows:
The parameter plane of is systematically grouped to provide a unified analytical framework for the categorization and derivation of . Five fundamental lines are identified upon which the integral can be evaluated directly to serve as the foundational initial conditions.
Four recursion formulas are derived that enable the methodical generation of solutions at any admissible point .
Recursive stability is ensured by systematically bypassing traditional recursion walls with a complete and sufficient set of initial conditions.
This work culminates in a compendium of explicit, closed-form formulas, serving as a valuable reference.
2. Evaluation of with Basic Techniques
In this paper, our focus will be on obtaining explicit formulas for the primitive function or antiderivative
of
in the real domain, intervals of
x avoiding
. Specifically, explicit formulas for
on every point
in the set
of admissible points will be derived with the main focus on the cases where
r is a negative integer or an odd multiple of
. Apparently, among the binomial integrals [
16,
17]
where
and
, the integral
considered in this paper is a subclass with
,
, and
. It should be noted that (
2) implies the existence of
in terms of elementary functions by the theorem of Chebyshev [
18] because
r,
, and/or
will be an integer for every point
in the set
.
Throughout the paper, except when necessary, integration constants will be omitted for brevity. From time to time, the terms antiderivative, primitive function, explicit formula, and integral will be used interchangeably with and explicit formula for the integral, which would not incur too much confusion.
2.1. Evaluation via Substitution
With
and
, we have
and
respectively. In addition, with
, we obtain
similar to (
5) but more useful, especially when
r is an integral multiple of
.
Example 1.
When , using (4), we can obtain , , and . In addition, (4) can also be used to obtainandSimilarly, the result (5) can be used to obtain , for instance. In addition, we can obtain and with (6) after some steps. 2.2. Evaluation via Integration by Parts
When
, it is easy to see that
or
Next, when
, with
,
,
, and
, we obtain
Rewriting (
10), we have
First, when
in (
11), we obtain
or
for
. On the other hand, when
, we obtain
, which can be expressed as
for
and
. Although we assumed
from the starting point of (
10), the result (
13) holds for
also, producing
for
.
Similarly, when
, with
,
,
, and
, we obtain
If
, we easily obtain
for
from (
15): for
, recollect
shown in (
7).
Subsequently, (
15) can be expressed as
First, when
and
, we obtain
or equivalently
for
: this result is the same as (
12) when
p is replaced with
. Next, when
and
, we obtain
, or
for
and
. When
, (
18) is the same as (
16). In (
15), we have assumed
: yet, (
18) holds true for
also, producing
Example 2.
When and , we obtain from (10). Thus, orusing the results shown in Example 1. In addition, from (13), we have and subsequently . We also have from (18), and thus with shown in Example 1. 3. Derivation of Explicit Formulas
In the following developments, and denote the product and sum, respectively, for even when b and c are not integers. To denote ‘’, we use ‘’ especially for the lower limit of a summation. We also let and if . In addition, often implies also. Again, integral constants will be omitted unless they are essential.
3.1. Explicit Formulas for , , , and
We first consider the cases in which direct evaluation of explicit formulas is possible.
Lemma 1.
For , we easily obtainNext, by combining the results shown in (7) and (16), we havefor . Similarly, collecting the results shown in (8) and (12), we havefor . Theorem 1.
For , as shown in (A7) of Appendix A.1, the explicit formulas for can be expressed aswhere , ,anddenotes the sign of y: note that , not . Example 3.
With (24), we obtain , for instance. Theorem 2.
For , the explicit formulas for can be expressed asas shown in (A15) of Appendix A.2. The results (
21)–(
24) and (
27) allow us to obtain the explicit formulas for the integral
for every point
in the five lines
,
,
,
, and
, respectively.
Figure 1 illustrates the five lines in which every point now has an explicit formula for the integral
: three additional lines are also included based on the results later in this section.
3.2. Explicit Formulas when
If
, we easily obtain
as discussed in (
9) also. For
, we can obtain
from
or vice versa for
with the recursion
which can be derived from (
10) or (
15).
When using the recursion (
28), two initial conditions, known formulas for
in this paper, are required because the recursion describes a relationship between two
’s with a difference of 2 in the subscript
p and we assume integers for
p. In addition, due to the ‘wall’ effect that neither
from
nor
from
can be obtained when
caused by the factor
in the denominator on the right-hand side of (
28), one additional initial condition is required.
In short, for the recursion (
28), a complete set of three initial conditions would be
, of which the first, second, and third elements can be replaced by any element from
,
, and
, respectively.
Now, by adding
obtained from (
28), we obtain
for
with
m a positive integer. It is easy to see that the result (
32) can also be used for
with
m a negative integer after an interchange of the subscripts
p and
s. Subsequently, the initial conditions
from Example 1,
from (
7), and
from (
9) can be used to obtain
recursively for
, for
, and for
, respectively. These observations will lead us to the following theorem.
Theorem 3.
The explicit formulas for can be obtained viawheredenotes the lower limit of the summation,denotes the upper limit of the summation,andfor the points on the line . Example 4.
We obtain , , , and from (33). We also easily obtain and . 3.3. Explicit Formulas on Other Points of
To obtain
from
or vice versa at every admissible value
except
when
p is fixed, we can use
shown in (
13). Similarly, to obtain
from
or vice versa at every admissible value
except
when
r is fixed, we can use
shown in (
18).
The recursion (
38) allows us to obtain
from
and vice versa in general: however, when
and
, neither
from
nor
from
can be obtained. Based on this observation, we divide the points in
into three groups such that
,
, and
, where
,
, and
are called the group sets of
r with
and
. Likewise, when obtaining
from
and vice versa with (
39), we define three group sets of
p,
,
, and
, where
and
.
Clearly, the two recursions (
38) and (
39) require initial conditions, the known formulas for
: for instance, those on the admissible points in the six lines
,
,
,
,
, and
will naturally be the candidates as the initial conditions.
Appendix A.7 provides more detailed discussion on the issue of initial conditions.
3.3.1. Derivation of via (38) for Fixed
Let
and
Then, if we add
we obtain
for
.
Now, note that
, where
with the double factorial defined as
Some values of the double factorial
are shown in
Table 1 for easy reference.
Theorem 4.
For fixed, from (46) we obtainuseful when calculating from the initial condition for , anduseful when calculating from the initial condition for . Note that the two formulas (
49) and (
50) can be used when one of the three group sets
,
, and
contains both
r and
s. Let us now describe how to obtain the integral
for all admissible values of
r except for
for a fixed value of
based on (
49) and (
50). The procedures differ slightly depending on the value of
p. First, when
p is an even integer, we use the set of initial conditions
,
,
,
. Specifically, use (
49) and the initial condition
to obtain
for
; use (
50) and the initial condition
to obtain
for
; use (
49) and the initial condition
to obtain
for
; and use (
50) and the initial condition
to obtain
for
. In effect, among the two sets
and
, one set is used when obtaining
for
r odd multiple of
and the other set for
r even multiple of
.
On the other hand, when
p is an odd integer,
,
,
,
or
,
,
,
shall be used as the set of initial conditions, where
ℏ denotes any odd multiple of
. Specifically, use the initial condition
in (
49) for obtaining
for
and the initial condition
in (
50) for obtaining
for
: these two steps are the same as those in the case of even
p described above. Next, use (
49) and the initial condition
to obtain
for
,
,
and use (
50) and the initial condition
to obtain
for
. Subsequently, to obtain
for
, we may use (
49) and the initial condition
to obtain
in the increasing order of
, or use (
50) and initial condition
to obtain
in the decreasing order of
.
Table 2 summarizes how
on all admissible points can be obtained when the value of
is fixed.
Example 5.
In Appendix A.3, the result (22) is reconfirmed via the recursions (49) and (50) when . When , we can obtain , 2, }, , , , , and with the initial conditions , , , and , respectively. Then, after some steps by noting that , we will obtain the following corollary.
Corollary 1.
For , the explicit formulas for can be expressed aswheredenotes the lower limit of the summation, anddenotes the upper limit of the summation. Example 6.
From (51), it is easy to see that , , ,and . 3.3.2. Derivation of via (39) for Fixed
Theorem 5.
For fixed, the explicit formulas for can be obtained viaanduseful in the calculation of with the initial condition when and , respectively. Here, Theorem 5 can be proved by following steps similar to those leading to (
49) and (
50), and details are provided in
Appendix A.4. The two formulas (
57) and (
58) can be used when one of the three group sets
,
, and
contains both
r and
s. After a discussion similar to that in
Section 3.3.1, we will obtain
Table 3 as the details on evaluating
for a fixed value of
.
Corollary 2.
For , the explicit formulas for can be obtained viawhereandas shown in (A33) of Appendix A.5. Note that in (63). Example 7.
With (60), we can obtain , , , , , and , for instance. We can also obtain and . Corollary 3.
The explicit formulas for can be obtained viawhereandas shown in (A38) of Appendix A.6. Example 8.
From (65), we have when , when , when , and when . In summary, via the recursions (
49), (
50), (
57), and (
58), together with the formulas shown in (
21)–(
24), (
27), (
33), (
51), (
60), and (
65), the explicit formulas for all admissible points can be obtained.
Table 4 shows some of the explicit formulas for
that can be obtained by the formulas derived in
Section 2 and
Section 3. In the meantime, if we want to obtain the explicit formula on one admissible point, the procedures described below can be adopted more conveniently.
Simplified Procedure to Obtain One Explicit Formula
To obtain , follow any of the two ways, W1 and W2.
W1. In the line , choose a value s such that is a non-zero integer and is known.
W1.1 If
, obtain
from (
49) with
,
, and
s the value chosen.
W1.2 If
, obtain
from (
50) with
,
, and
s the value chosen.
W2. In the line , choose a value s such that is a non-zero even integer and is known.
W2.1 If
, obtain
from (
57) with
,
, and
s the value chosen.
W2.2 If
, obtain
from (
58) with
,
, and
s the value chosen.
Example 9.
As an example of the simplified procedure, let us obtain on the red point shown in Figure 1. (Via W1) In the line , among other possibilities, we can choose for which is available from Table 4. Then, noting that , we follow W1.2. Specifically, using (50) with , , and , we obtainas shown in Example 2 also. We have used that , , and . (Via W2) In the line , we can choose for which is available from Example 1. Noting that , we will follow W2.2. Then, using (58) with , , and , we obtainby noting that , , and .