Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-algebra-analysis-and-differential-equations-1-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/6/solution

Let . For , close the interval by the upper semicircle, counterclockwise. Its only enclosed pole is , with residue . The residue theorem gives
On , and . Hence the arc is bounded by
by the supplied estimate, with parameter .
For , close below, with clockwise orientation. The pole at lies outside, and the exponential decays there. Parametrizing the lower arc yields the same bound with in place of . Its contribution again tends to zero, and no residue remains. Therefore
Figure 1.
The exponential selects the half-plane in which the closing arc decays
. Details.
This is the contour-decay mechanism behind Jordan's lemma; the pole contributes only when the decaying closure encloses it.

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