TITLE: Arctangents of odd powers of the golden ratio
QUESTION [40 upvotes]: While trying to answer this MSE question, I found that arctangents of many odd powers of the golden ratio $\varphi=\frac{1+\sqrt5}2$ are expressible as rational linear combinations of arctangents of positive integers:
$$\begin{align}
\arctan\varphi&=2\arctan1-\frac12\,\arctan2\\
\arctan\varphi^3&=\arctan1+\frac12\,\arctan2\\
\arctan\varphi^5&=4\arctan1-\frac32\,\arctan2\\
\arctan\varphi^7&=3\arctan1+\frac12\,\arctan2-\arctan5\\
\arctan\varphi^9&=\arctan1-\frac12\,\arctan2+\arctan4\\
\arctan\varphi^{11}&=5\arctan1+\frac12\,\arctan2-\arctan5-\arctan34\\
\arctan\varphi^{13}&=3\arctan1-\frac12\,\arctan2+\arctan4-\arctan89\\
\arctan\varphi^{15}&=-2\arctan1+\frac32\,\arctan2+\arctan11
\end{align}$$
I was not able to find such a representation for $\arctan\varphi^{17}$ though.

Question 1. Can we prove that it does not exist?


I also could not find such a representation for any positive even power.

Question 2. Can we prove that it does not exist for any positive even power?



Question 3. Is there a simple way to determine if such a representation exists for a given power?

REPLY [11 votes]: It may be helpful to transform this from a problem involving tangents to one involving complex exponentials.  Note that $\exp(2 i \arctan(x)) = \dfrac{i-x}{i+x}$.  Thus an identity $2 \arctan(x) = \sum k_j \arctan(x_j)$ for integers $k_j$ implies
$$ \left(\dfrac{i-x}{i+x}\right)^2 = \prod_j \left( \dfrac{i-x_j}{i+x_j} \right)^{k_j} \tag{1}$$
Conversely, (1) implies 
$2 \arctan(x) = \sum_{j} k_j \arctan(x_j) + n \pi$ for some integer $n$. 
Thus to have an identity for $2 \arctan(x)$ as an integer linear combination 
of $\arctan(x_j)$ (with $x_1 = 1$ to take care of the $n\pi$), we need $((i-x)/(i+x))^2$ to be in the group generated by $((i-x_j)/(i+x_j))$.
In the case at hand, for odd $n$ I get
$$ \left( \dfrac{i - \phi^n}{i+\phi^n}\right)^2 = \dfrac{L_{2n} - 6 - 4 i L_n}{L_{2n}+2}  = \dfrac{i+2}{i-2} \prod_{k=1}^{(n-1)/2} \left(\dfrac{i+L_{2k}}{i-L_{2k}}\right)^2$$
(I admit I might not have found these formulas without seeing Pakk's comment to ARupinski's answer).
 For even $n$, on the other hand, I get
$$\left(\dfrac{i-\phi^n}{i+\phi^n}\right)^2 = \dfrac{L_{2n} - 6 - 4 i \sqrt{5} F_n}{L_{2n}+2}$$
and clearly you need some factors involving $\sqrt{5}$ to have any hope.