Find an antiderivative for
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I'm having some trouble on this homewor
Leonel Contreras
Answered question
2022-07-01
Find an antiderivative for I'm having some trouble on this homework problem: If is defined by for the branch of the log function defined by the condition , find an antiderivative for and then find , where is any path from -1 to 1 which lies in the upper half-plane. I think the second part will be relatively straightforward by FTC once I find an antiderivative. What I'm having trouble with is the first part. My intuition from real-valued calculus says that an antiderivative for is . I'm not sure how to show this in the complex setting though. How do I use the log function and the associated branch to show this? Thanks.
Answer & Explanation
Rebekah Zimmerman
Beginner2022-07-02Added 32 answers
Step 1 We let our intuition tell us that we expect the antiderivative is We can write this in polar form and expand it to
where and . Then, taking partial derivatives yields
We can then easily verify that the Cauchy-Riemann equations hold, namely (for polar coordinates) and . Step 2 Since CR holds, we know that the function g(z) is analytic and has derivative given by Plugging in and following the algebra, we are left with . Thus, we've verified that g(z) is indeed an antiderivative for . Next, we let be a path in the upper half-plane. By the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, we know , where g is an antiderivative for f. Applying this here, we get
Kendrick Hampton
Beginner2022-07-03Added 7 answers
Step 1 Your problem would need to read since including the possibility that one of the signs can be equal would mean is not continuous (and thus not holomorphic on the domain of definition), and including both possibilities for equality would mean that is not well-defined. Step 2 Your intuition is correct. To prove this, use the definition of derivative with respect to z for complex functions on . This will show that F(z) is an antiderivative of on the domain of definition. The procedure works out identically to how the limit calculation would work in a calculus class. To finish, note that F(z) is itself holomorphic on the given domain of definition (why?). In such cases, it is true that for any path over [a,b] contained in the (open, connected) domain of definition for a holomorphic function F(z), we have