Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2010 / Paper 2 / 4

Put $d=\sqrt{a^2-b^2-c^2}>0$ and $h=b-ic$. The denominator of the complex rational function becomesThe quadratic formula gives its two zeros, hence the two poles:Their product is $(b+ic)/(b-ic)$, so $|z_{\mathrm{in}}{z}_{\mathrm{out}}|=1$. To locate them one also needs to exclude the possibility of both lying on the unit circle. Here their moduli are explicit:Both are simple poles: $P^{\prime }(z)=hz+a$ takes the nonzero values $d$ and $-d$ at them. In particular their residues are $1/d$ and $-1/d$.

For the real integral, use the change of variables $z=e^{i\theta }$. As $\theta$ runs from $-\pi$ to $\pi$, this traverses the unit circle once counterclockwise, andThus $I=(1/i){\oint }_{|z|=1}f(z)dz$. Only $z_{\mathrm{in}}$ is enclosed. The residue theorem, or Cauchy integral formula after subtracting its simple-pole part, givesThe real denominator is positive because $a>\sqrt{b^2+c^2}$. As an independent check, write $b\cos \theta +c\sin \theta =\sqrt{b^2+c^2}\cos (\theta -\varphi )$; a period shift reduces the answer to the existing reciprocal affine sine integral.