TITLE: Summing the series $ \frac{1}{2n+1} + \frac{1}{2} \cdot \frac{1}{2n+3} + \cdots \ \text{ad inf}$
QUESTION [8 upvotes]: How does one sum the given series: $$ \frac{1}{2n+1} + \frac{1}{2} \cdot \frac{1}{2n+3} + \frac{1 \cdot 3}{2 \cdot 4} \frac{1}{2n+5} + \frac{ 1 \cdot 3 \cdot 5}{2 \cdot 4 \cdot 6} \frac{1}{2n+7} + \cdots \ \text{ad inf}$$
Given, such a series, how does one go about solving it. Getting an Integral Representation seems tough for me.
I thought of going along these lines, Summing the series $(-1)^k \frac{(2k)!!}{(2k+1)!!} a^{2k+1}$ but couldn't succeed.

REPLY [10 votes]: Observe that
$$\displaystyle \frac{1}{4^n} {2n \choose n} = \frac{(2n-1)(2n-3)(2n-5)...}{2n(2n-2)(2n-4)...}$$
and recall that
$$\displaystyle \frac{1}{ \sqrt{1 - x^2} } = \sum_{k \ge 0} \frac{1}{4^k} {2k \choose k} x^{2k}.$$
It follows that the desired quantity is
$$\displaystyle \int_0^1 \frac{x^{2n}}{\sqrt{1 - x^2}} dx.$$
But letting $x = \sin \theta$ this is just
$$\displaystyle \int_0^{ \frac{\pi}{2} } \sin^{2n} \theta d \theta = \frac{\pi}{2} \frac{1}{4^n} {2n \choose n}.$$
This is equivalent to Mariano's closed form via the identities $\Gamma(x+1) = x \Gamma(x)$ and $\Gamma \left( \frac{1}{2} \right) = \sqrt{\pi}$.  I should mention that the integral at the end of Moron's answer is quite doable; write it in terms of a cosine and use the substitution $\cos \theta = \frac{1 - t^2}{1 + t^2}$ where $t = \tan \frac{\theta}{2}$ to reduce the problem to the integral of a rational function, and then one can use one of several related methods (partial fractions, contour integration).
Remark:  The last integral identity above happens to be one of my favorite identities.  I describe a representation-theoretic and combinatorial proof of it in this blog post.  Another approach implicitly occurs in this blog post.