Independent arguments of dilogarithms

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the independence of various dilogarithm arguments of the form ##\text{Li}_2(X_i)##, where the arguments belong to a specific set defined by certain mathematical expressions. Participants explore whether these dilogarithms can be reduced to a smaller set through transformation laws or identities, examining the relationships between the arguments.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Technical explanation, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions the meaning of "independent," suggesting that the arguments may not be independent in a statistical sense due to having only two variables and ten distributions.
  • Another participant proposes that the dilogarithms might be linearly dependent in the vector space of distributions and suggests checking this with standard methods.
  • A participant clarifies that by "independent," they mean the ability to relate the dilogarithms through transformation laws, expressing a belief that such relations might exist despite not finding them yet.
  • One participant mentions that with suitable ranges, the dilogarithm is bijective, implying that reduction is possible but may not be practically useful.
  • Another participant requests an example of a relation between the arguments, noting their own numerical tests have not yielded any dilog relations.
  • A participant from a physics background expresses concern that the number of dilog arguments exceeds their expectations and mentions a symmetry between pairs that might affect the reduction of arguments.
  • One participant suggests using the inverse dilogarithm to eliminate the dilogarithm, leading to a situation where parameters can be expressed in terms of the arguments, but acknowledges this may not align with the original goal of finding dilog relations.
  • A participant reiterates their goal of finding specific relations between the dilogarithm arguments, particularly looking for cases where transformations like $$\text{Li}_2(X_i) = \text{Li}_2 \left(\frac{1}{1-X_i}\right)$$ hold true for some arguments.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing interpretations of "independence" and whether the dilogarithms can be related through transformation laws. There is no consensus on the existence of such relations, and the discussion remains unresolved regarding the independence of the dilogarithm arguments.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight the complexity of the relationships between the arguments and the potential for linear dependence, but specific mathematical steps or assumptions remain unresolved.

CAF123
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I have a series of dilogarithms with various arguments and I was just wondering if it is possible to tell if they are all independent or if there is a way to reduce them to a smaller minimal set?

The dilogs in question are of the form ##\text{Li}_2(X_i)##, where ##X_i## is an argument ##i=1,\dots,10## belonging to the set $$X_i \in \left\{\frac{v - u v}{1 - u v}, \frac{-1 + u v}{-u + u v}, \frac{-1 + u v}{u + u v}, \frac{-v + u v}{-u + u v},\frac{v + u v}{-1 + u v}, \frac{v + u v}{u + u v}, \frac{1 + u}{1-w}, \frac{-1 + u}{u - w}, \frac{1 + u}{u - w}, \frac{-1 + u}{u + w}\right\}$$

I have tried various transformation laws of the dilogs as described in the wolfram pages but none seem to relate the above arguments. Thanks for any comments.
 
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What do you mean by independent? They are clearly not all independent in terms of statistics - you only have two variables but 10 distributions.
They might be linearly dependent in the vector space of distributions - that should be easy to check with the standard methods.
 
mfb said:
What do you mean by independent? They are clearly not all independent in terms of statistics - you only have two variables but 10 distributions.
They might be linearly dependent in the vector space of distributions - that should be easy to check with the standard methods.
By ‘independent’, I meant if I could relate any of the dilogs with the above arguments to each other using transformation laws amongst dilogs, as given e.g in wolfram documentation. As far as I can see, they are not related but I have a hunch that they must be so was wondering if you (or anyone) could see a way in which my number of dilogs can be reduced through dilog identities.
 
With suitable ranges the dilogarithm is bijective, so clearly it is possible, but not necessarily in a useful way.
 
mfb said:
With suitable ranges the dilogarithm is bijective, so clearly it is possible, but not necessarily in a useful way.
Could you give me an example? I've done some numerical tests and I fail to find a dilog relation between any two arguments presented.
I should also say I'm doing such an exercise from a physics background, the number of dilog arguments I have here exceeds the amount I naively expected in my analysis. However there is a symmetry u->-u and v->-v between pairs and I am wondering if this symmetry protects the reduction of dilog arguments further.
 
You can always take the inverse dilogarithm to get rid of the dilogarithm. That is probably not what you want, but it is possible. Afterwards it is a "solve for u,v,w" situation with multiple options to do so.

2/(X9-X8) = u-w

1/(1/(2X10) + 1/(2X9) - 1) + 1 = u

Add the dilogarithm and its inverse everywhere.

With that you can express w and u with these things, and find an independent way to express X7.
 
Thanks, if I understand properly in the example above you found two equations relating some Xi in terms of parameters u,w. Then you can solve for u and w in terms of these Xi which may e.g be subbed into X7 to get this in terms of other Xi. This is one manner of simplification but indeed,as you surmised, not the one I was looking for since it probably is not the case that there exists dilog relations between the arguments obtained.

Just to be crystal clear about what I want to do: Given an argument Xi I want to find a relation e.g. $$\text{Li}_2(X_i) = \text{Li}_2 \left(\frac{1}{1-X_i}\right) + \dots,$$ where 1/(1-Xi) will coincide with some Xj for suitable i and j. I have hacked up lots of dilog identities and I fail to find a case where e.g 1/(1-Xi) will coincide with an Xj.
 

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