Coarea formula 2026-10-25
For a scalar smooth map , integration can be decomposed into its level surfaces with the gradient weight displayed in the title. Near a regular level, using as the normal coordinate gives the volume element , which explains the formula by integration by substitution. In particular, when the zero level is regular and the integrals are well-defined. General versions allow Lipschitz functions and maps into higher-dimensional spaces.
Set , retaining in . Replacing only the lower integration limit by zero gives
Substitution of the constants yields
To quantify the approximation, write . The true lower limit is , and an elementary integration by substitution, , gives
Since , the approximate time is too large by a relative fraction . This explains why changing the lower limit introduces little error for a small excess mass. The cosmological turnaround time diverges as , consistently with the absence of finite cosmological turnaround in an exactly critical Einstein-de Sitter universe.
Put , so . Then integration by substitution gives
The last two integrals are elementary exponential moments, or values of the Gamma function.
Use integration by substitution with , so and . Reversing the transformed limits gives
The original integrand is finite at both endpoints.
Set , so . This integration by substitution gives
The antiderivative is taken on either interval separated by . Differentiating verifies the sign and factor .
Use the integration by substitution , with . On this interval , so it cancels the positive denominator square root. The transformed integral is
Its integrand is even. Therefore the answer in the PDF's modulus-amplitude convention for the elliptic integral of the second kind is
The modulus is , not the squared parameter .
Set , so , and write . The integration by substitution gives . For , integration by parts yields
Both endpoint terms vanish. Use inside the remaining integral:
Consequently
This is the instance of the power-complement integral recurrence, with initial value .
Subtract the integrands first, using . Then set :
The further integration by substitution makes , so
This also holds at .
The indicated integration by substitution gives
Pointwise, the argument of tends to . Since the Gaussian integral is , the expected limit is . To justify it for unbounded data, use the approximate identity property rather than assuming a uniform bound on .
In the original variable, normalization gives
For , continuity makes the difference smaller than any prescribed if is small enough, and the kernel mass is at most one. On the complement the Gaussian mass tends to zero; the data-weighted tail tends to zero by heat-kernel convergence for Gaussian-integrable initial data. This proves
For heat-kernel convergence from a conditionally convergent Gaussian integral, the same tail conclusion follows using the bounded primitive of . The factor has its maximum at , approaching . For sufficiently small , it is monotone on each of the two tails outside , and its values at the tail endpoints tend to zero exponentially. Integration by parts bounds each tail by a constant times its endpoint value, proving the same limit without an absolute-convergence assumption. The approach is from positive time.
For , set , . This integration by substitution gives
This case is treated separately because the denominator in part (a) vanishes.
Use integration by substitution with and the Gaussian being an even function:
The factor two from the differential exactly cancels the half-line factor in the given full-line Gaussian integral.
The integral converges absolutely: near zero it behaves like , and at infinity like . Let its value be . The integration by substitution gives
Therefore
Absolute convergence makes this cancellation between the two ends legitimate.
Use integration by substitution with the reciprocal variable , so and . The endpoints become . Thus
Renaming the dummy integration variable proves the identity without evaluating either side.
Set , so . The real domain is , ensuring . The integration by substitution followed by integration by parts gives
Thus
Set with , so and . The integration by substitution gives
This uses the principal inverse sine; the chosen angle interval keeps the square root positive.
Apply the recurrence repeatedly down to :
Including the base factor and rewriting the products as factorials gives
The formula also includes because . It is symmetric in , consistent with the integration by substitution . Equivalently it is the Euler beta function , although that identification is not needed for the recurrence derivation.
Since for all real , divide the equation by that factor. Its linear coefficient can be integrated by polynomial division:
Thus a positive integrating factor is . Multiplying the divided equation gives the product rule form
The integration by substitution gives
The initial condition fixes . The required solution is therefore
No real singularity was introduced by the division or the integrating factor, so the solution extends over the entire real line.
The same integration by substitution gives the expected value
The remaining integrand is an odd function. Its integral is absolutely convergent, since and is integrable. Thus cancellation under symmetry in integration is legitimate, rather than merely a principal-value calculation. Consequently
Equivalently, the logistic distribution is symmetric about , and its exponentially decaying tails ensure that its expected value exists.
Separate one factor of the hyperbolic sine and use the hyperbolic Pythagorean identity . With and , integration by substitution gives
For real , the hyperbolic cosine never vanishes. Differentiating the result gives , checking the sign of the reciprocal term.
Use integration by substitution with , so . For , also , and
The domain condition explains why no absolute value is needed around the inner logarithm.