Define
The original question takes the argument a=2.
For brevity, we will suppress the first two arguments⁰, as it turns out they are irrelevant to the final answer.
(This is a thing in higher mathematics lmao get used to it)
The original question is equivalent¹ to:
It is clear that ψ(u,v) = ψ(v,u), from the definition, so we can collapse the first two terms together.
Break off the +1 term and ignore it for now, as that is what gives the final answer.
Using the substitution x = t², the integral becomes:
Using the boundary preserving transformation t→1-t, this becomes:
Use symmetry in u,v, once again, to reorder the arguments to be the same as before.
Take the average of this and the previous step, to obtain:
We consider only the last two terms for now.
Define:
By the same boundary preserving transformation as before, it is obvious that A = B.
Use the scaling transformation t→2t:
Use the same "boundary preserving transformation" to change the interval [0,½] → [½,1]
Finally, we have:
Returning to the step before we defined A and B, we obtain:
The +1 term is trivially integrated to obtain 1, which is the final answer.
⁰ ψ(u,v) = ψ(a,k,u,v)
¹ left as an exercise to the reader