On an integral of J-Bessel functions and its application to Mahler measure (with an appendix by J.S. Friedman*)

Abstract

In a recent paper the team of Cogdell, Jorgenson and Smajlovi\'c develop infinite series representations for the logarithmic Mahler measure of a complex linear form, with 4 or more variables. We establish the case of 3 variables, by bounding an integral with integrand involving the random walk probability density $a\displaystyle\int_0^\infty tJ_0(at) \displaystyle\prod_{m=0}^2 J_0(r_m t)dt$, where $J_0$ is the order zero Bessel function of the first kind, and $a$ and {$r_m$} are positive real numbers. To facilitate our proof we develop an alternative description of the integral's asymptotic behavior at its known points of divergence. As a computational aid to accommodate numerical experiments, an algorithm to calculate these series is presented in the Appendix.