Journal of Inequalities in Pure and Applied Mathematics A q-ANALOGUE OF AN INEQUALITY DUE TO KONRAD KNOPP L. D. ABREU Department of Mathematics Universidade de Coimbra Apartado 3008, 3001-454 Coimbra Portugal volume 7, issue 3, article 110, 2006. Received 25 January, 2006; accepted 22 March, 2006. Communicated by: H.M. Srivastava EMail: daniel@mat.uc.pt URL: http://www.mat.uc.pt/faculty/daniel.html Abstract Contents JJ J II I Home Page Go Back Close c 2000 Victoria University ISSN (electronic): 1443-5756 023-06 Quit Abstract We derive a simple q-analogue of Konrad Knopp’s inequality for Euler-Knopp means, using the finite and infinite q-binomial theorems. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 05A30. Key words: Knopp’s inequality, q-analogue. A q-Analogue of an Inequality due to Konrad Knopp Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Proof of (1.2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References 3 5 L. D. Abreu Title Page Contents JJ J II I Go Back Close Quit Page 2 of 8 J. Ineq. Pure and Appl. Math. 7(3) Art. 110, 2006 http://jipam.vu.edu.au 1. Introduction Given a sequence (an ) and a number t such that 0 < t < 1, its Euler-Knopp mean en (t) is defined by n X n en (t) = (1 − t)n−m tm am . m m=0 Knopp’s inequality [2, Section 3] states that, if p > 1 and 0 < t < 1 then ∞ X ∞ 1X [en (t)] ≤ [am ]p t m=0 n=0 (1.1) p if the series on the right hand side is convergent. The aim of this short note is to prove the following q-extension of Knopp’s inequality (1.1), valid if p > 1, 0 < t < 1 and 0 < q < 1: (1.2) ∞ X ∞ 1 X m(m−1) [en (t; q)] ≤ q 2 [am ]p , t n=0 m=0 p provided the series on the right hand side of (1.2) converges. The sequence (en (t; q)) is n X m(m−1) n en (t; q) = q 2 (1 − t)n−m tm am m q m=0 n with the q-analogue of the numbers m defined by q n (q; q)n = , m q (q; q)m (q; q)n−m A q-Analogue of an Inequality due to Konrad Knopp L. D. Abreu Title Page Contents JJ J II I Go Back Close Quit Page 3 of 8 J. Ineq. Pure and Appl. Math. 7(3) Art. 110, 2006 http://jipam.vu.edu.au where (a; q)0 = 1, (a; q)n = n Y (1 − aq k−1 ), k=1 (a; q)∞ = lim (a; q)n . n→∞ n n When q → 1 then clearly m q → m and both members in (1.2) tend to (1.1). A q-Analogue of an Inequality due to Konrad Knopp L. D. Abreu Title Page Contents JJ J II I Go Back Close Quit Page 4 of 8 J. Ineq. Pure and Appl. Math. 7(3) Art. 110, 2006 http://jipam.vu.edu.au 2. Proof of (1.2) We will follow the notations in [1]. The proof of our result uses the q-binomial theorem and the finite q-binomial theorem. The finite q-binomial theorem states that n X m(m−1) n m n (2.1) [x − a]q = (−1) q 2 xn−m am , m q m=0 where [x − a]nq = (x − a)(x − aq)...(x − aq n−1 ). A q-Analogue of an Inequality due to Konrad Knopp L. D. Abreu The q-binomial theorem states that Title Page ∞ (az; q)∞ X (a; q)n n = z , (z; q)∞ (q; q) n n=0 (2.2) |z| < 1. Using Hölder’s inequality in the form hX ip X hX ip−1 ak b k ≤ bk apk bk , Contents JJ J p>1 we have, if p > 1, II I Go Back Close Quit p [en (t; q)] " n #p−1 n X n X m(m−1) m(m−1) n ≤ q 2 (1−t)n−m tm apm q 2 (1 − t)n−m tm . m m q q m=0 m=0 Page 5 of 8 J. Ineq. Pure and Appl. Math. 7(3) Art. 110, 2006 http://jipam.vu.edu.au The finite q-binomial theorem (2.1) gives n X n m=0 m q m(m−1) 2 n X m(m−1) n t = (−1) q 2 (1 − t)n−m (−t)m m q m=0 n−m m (1 − t) q m = [(1 − t) + t]nq = (1 − t + t)(1 − t + qt)...(1 − t + q n−1 t) < 1 Therefore, A q-Analogue of an Inequality due to Konrad Knopp n X m(m−1) n p [en (t; q)] ≤ q 2 (1 − t)n−m tm apm . m q m=0 (2.3) L. D. Abreu Now, if 0 < t < 1, then for every positive k we have (1 − q k )t < 1 − q k . This implies t < (1 − (1 − t)q k ) and consequently, tm < ((1 − t)q; q)m . Using this last estimate on (2.3) and summing in n from 0 to ∞, the result is ∞ X [en (t; q)]p n=0 ≤ n=0 m=0 (2.4) = ∞ X m=0 Contents JJ J II I Go Back ∞ X n X n m Title Page q m(m−1) 2 (1 − t)n−m ((1 − t) q; q)m apm Close q ((1 − t) q; q)m q m(m−1) 2 apm Quit ∞ X n n≥m m n−m (1 − t) . Page 6 of 8 q J. Ineq. Pure and Appl. Math. 7(3) Art. 110, 2006 http://jipam.vu.edu.au To evaluate the sum in n, observe that ∞ ∞ X X (q; q)n n n−m (1 − t) = (1 − t)n−m m q (q; q)n−m (q; q)m n>m n≥m = ∞ X k=0 = (q; q)m+k (1 − t)k (q; q)k (q; q)m ∞ X (q m+1 ; q)k k=0 m+1 (q; q)k (1 − t)k (q (1 − t); q)∞ (q(1 − t); q)∞ 1 = , ((1 − t); q)m+1 = where the q-binomial formula (2.2) was used in the fourth identity. Substituting in (2.4) we finally have ∞ X n n X X ((1 − t) q; q)m m(m−1) p 1 m(m−1) p 2 [en (t; q)] ≤ q am = q 2 am ((1 − t); q) t m+1 n=0 m=0 m=0 p for every n. Taking the limit as n → ∞ gives (1.2). A q-Analogue of an Inequality due to Konrad Knopp L. D. Abreu Title Page Contents JJ J II I Go Back Close Quit Page 7 of 8 J. Ineq. Pure and Appl. Math. 7(3) Art. 110, 2006 http://jipam.vu.edu.au References [1] V. KAC AND P. CHEUNG, Quantum Calculus, Springer, 2002. [2] K. KNOPP, Über reihen mit positiven gliedern, J. Lond. Math. Soc., 18 (1930), 13–21. A q-Analogue of an Inequality due to Konrad Knopp L. D. Abreu Title Page Contents JJ J II I Go Back Close Quit Page 8 of 8 J. Ineq. Pure and Appl. Math. 7(3) Art. 110, 2006 http://jipam.vu.edu.au