Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/s1/3/b/2/solution

The finite singularities are square-root branch points at . Choose the cut between them and the branch at infinity. The two banks then have values above and below. A counterclockwise loop around the cut traverses its upper bank right-to-left, so its integral is , where is the required real integral. At large radius,
Therefore . Infinity is not another square-root branch point: this branch has an ordinary pole there on its sheet. Small detours about the finite endpoints vanish as their radius to power .

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