Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/paper-2/4/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2015 Paper 2 4 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Choose a branch of the complex logarithm with , placing its branch cut down the negative imaginary axis. Thus for , while on the negative real axis for .
Integrate around an upper semicircle, with a small clockwise semicircular indentation above zero. The large arc contributes , and the small arc contributes . The only enclosed pole is , withWriting for the required integral, the negative real segment contributes . Hence the residue theorem givesThe imaginary terms cancel, leavingThe integral converges at both endpoints because is integrable near zero and is integrable at infinity. As a real-variable check, scaling reduces the result to the vanishing first logarithmic moment at , one of the logarithmic moments of the Cauchy kernel.
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