Unexpected singularities in an integral

131 Views Asked by At

I am doing an indefinite integral,

$$f=\int\frac{r^2}{(r^2 + d^2 -2rd\cos{\theta})^2}dr$$ where $0\leq r< \infty$, $0\leq d< \infty$ and $0\leq \theta \leq \pi$. The integral that I am getting (I used Wolfram Alpha to calculate the integral) is as follows $$f = \frac{1}{4 \sin^2{\theta}}\left[\frac{\tan^{-1}{\left(\frac{r-d\cos{\theta}}{d\sin{\theta}}\right)}}{d\sin{\theta}}+ \frac{2r\cos^2{\theta}-d\cos{\theta}-r}{r^2 +d^2 -2rd \cos{\theta}}\right]$$ which is singular at $\theta = 0,\pi$ and at $d=0$ whereas the integrand was only singular at $(r,\theta)=(d,0)$. I don't understand why is it so. Why am I getting singularities in the solution of the integral at places where there were no singularities in the integrand? Thanks!

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On

The singularity of the expression signals you that the integral tends to diverge. A closer look confirms that the definite integral diverges whenever $\sin\theta=0$ and $r_1\le d\cos\theta\le r_2$, where $r_1 <r_2$ are the integration limits. You can however convince yourself that if $d\cos\theta $ is outside the integration range the definite integral converges: $$ \lim_{\sin\theta\to0}f (r_2,d,\theta)-f (r_1,d,\theta)<\infty. $$