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Math 311 Winter 2018: Professor Felipce Goncalves Homework 4 Justin Stevens Monday, February 19th, 2018

The document is a math homework assignment that contains one problem. The problem asks the student to compute a contour integral around a semi-circle from 1 to -1. The student parametrizes the curve and uses the principal branch to evaluate the integral. They find that the integral equals (1 - e^(i(a+1)π))/(a+1).

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65 views1 page

Math 311 Winter 2018: Professor Felipce Goncalves Homework 4 Justin Stevens Monday, February 19th, 2018

The document is a math homework assignment that contains one problem. The problem asks the student to compute a contour integral around a semi-circle from 1 to -1. The student parametrizes the curve and uses the principal branch to evaluate the integral. They find that the integral equals (1 - e^(i(a+1)π))/(a+1).

Uploaded by

Justin Stevens
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Math 311 Winter 2018

Professor Felipce Goncalves


Homework 4

Justin Stevens
Monday, February 19th, 2018

Problem 1. Let a be a non-zero complex number. Compute the contour integral


Z
z a dz
C

where C is the semi-circle |z| = 1 going from 1 to −1 and z a is taken as the principal branch
(or value) of the power.

Solution. We can parametize the curve by z = eit where 0 ≤ t ≤ π. Using the principlal
branch for power,
f (z(t)) = z a = eaLog(z) = eait ,
since Log(z) = log |eit | + iArg(eit ) = it. We then see that z 0 (t) = ieit , therefore,

f (z(t))z 0 (t) = ie(a+1)it .

We can verify that this is piecewise continuous, therefore, the contour integral exists:
Z Z π
a
z dz = ie(a+1)it
C
0 (a+1)it 
e π
=i
i(a + 1) 0

1  (a+1)iπ 
= e −1 .
a+1

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