Line integral

In mathematics, a line integral is an

integral where the function to be
integrated is evaluated along a curve.[1]
The terms path integral, curve integral, and
curvilinear integral are also used; contour
integral is used as well, although that is
typically reserved for line integrals in the
complex plane.

The function to be integrated may be a

scalar field or a vector field. The value of
the line integral is the sum of values of the
field at all points on the curve, weighted by
some scalar function on the curve
(commonly arc length or, for a vector field,
the scalar product of the vector field with a
differential vector in the curve). This
weighting distinguishes the line integral
from simpler integrals defined on intervals.
Many simple formulae in physics, such as
the definition of work as , have
natural continuous analogues in terms of
line integrals, in this case
, which computes the
work done on an object moving through an
electric or gravitational field F along a path
.
Vector calculus
In qualitative terms, a line integral in vector
calculus can be thought of as a measure
of the total effect of a given tensor field
along a given curve. For example, the line
integral over a scalar field (rank 0 tensor)
can be interpreted as the area under the
field carved out by a particular curve. This
can be visualized as the surface created
by z = f(x,y) and a curve C in the xy plane.
The line integral of f would be the area of
the "curtain" created—when the points of
the surface that are directly over C are
carved out.
Line integral of a scalar field

The line integral over a scalar field f can be thought of as the area
under the curve C along a surface z = f(x,y), described by the field.

Definition

For some scalar field where

, the line integral along a
piecewise smooth curve is defined
as
where is an arbitrary
bijective parametrization of the curve
such that r(a) and r(b) give the endpoints
of and a < b. Here, and in the rest of the
article, the absolute value bars denote the
standard (Euclidean) norm of a vector.

The function f is called the integrand, the

curve is the domain of integration, and
the symbol ds may be intuitively
interpreted as an elementary arc length of
the curve (i.e., a differential length of ).
Line integrals of scalar fields over a curve
 do not depend on the chosen
parametrization r of .[2]

Geometrically, when the scalar field f is

defined over a plane (n = 2), its graph is a
surface z = f(x, y) in space, and the line
integral gives the (signed) cross-sectional
area bounded by the curve and the graph
of f. See the animation to the right.

Derivation

For a line integral over a scalar field, the

integral can be constructed from a
Riemann sum using the above definitions
of f, C and a parametrization r of C. This
can be done by partitioning the interval
[a, b] into n sub-intervals [ti−1, ti] of length
Δt = (b − a)/n, then r(ti) denotes some
point, call it a sample point, on the curve C.
We can use the set of sample points
{r(ti): 1 ≤ i ≤ n} to approximate the curve C
as a polygonal path by introducing the
straight line piece between each of the
sample points r(ti−1) and r(ti). (The
approximation of a curve to a polygonal
path is called rectification of a curve, see
here for more details.) We then label the
distance of the line segment between
adjacent sample points on the curve as
Δsi. The product of f(r(ti)) and Δsi can be
associated with the signed area of a
rectangle with a height and width of f(r(ti))
and Δsi, respectively. Taking the limit of the
sum of the terms as the length of the
partitions approaches zero gives us

By the mean value theorem, the distance

between subsequent points on the curve,
is

Substituting this in the above Riemann

sum yields
which is the Riemann sum for the integral

Line integral of a vector field

Definition

For a vector field F: U ⊆ Rn → Rn, the line

integral along a piecewise smooth curve
C ⊂ U, in the direction of r, is defined as
where · is the dot product, and
r: [a, b] → C is a bijective parametrization
of the curve C such that r(a) and r(b) give
the endpoints of C.

A line integral of a scalar field is thus a line

integral of a vector field, where the vectors
are always tangential to the line of the
integration.

Line integrals of vector fields are

independent of the parametrization r in
absolute value, but they do depend on its
orientation. Specifically, a reversal in the
orientation of the parametrization changes
the sign of the line integral.[2]
From the viewpoint of differential
geometry, the line integral of a vector field
along a curve is the integral of the
corresponding 1-form under the musical
isomorphism (which takes the vector field
to the corresponding covector field), over
the curve considered as an immersed 1-
manifold.

Derivation
 The trajectory of a particle (in red) along a curve inside a vector field. Starting
from a, the particle traces the path C along the vector field F. The dot product
(green line) of its tangent vector (red arrow) and the field vector (blue arrow)
defines an area under a curve, which is equivalent to the path's line integral.
(Click on image for a detailed description.)

The line integral of a vector field can be

derived in a manner very similar to the
case of a scalar field, but this time with the
inclusion of a dot product. Again using the
above definitions of F, C and its
parametrization r(t), we construct the
integral from a Riemann sum. We partition
the interval [a, b] (which is the range of the
values of the parameter t) into n intervals
of length Δt = (b − a)/n. Letting ti be the ith
point on [a, b], then r(ti) gives us the
position of the ith point on the curve.
However, instead of calculating up the
distances between subsequent points, we
need to calculate their displacement
vectors, Δri. As before, evaluating F at all
the points on the curve and taking the dot
product with each displacement vector
gives us the infinitesimal contribution of
each partition of F on C. Letting the size of
the partitions go to zero gives us a sum
By the mean value theorem, we see that
the displacement vector between adjacent
points on the curve is

Substituting this in the above Riemann

sum yields

which is the Riemann sum for the integral

defined above.
Path independence

If a vector field F is the gradient of a scalar

field G (i.e. if F is conservative), that is,

then by the multivariable chain rule the

derivative of the composition of G and r(t)
is

which happens to be the integrand for the

line integral of F on r(t). It follows, given a
path C, that
In other words, the integral of F over C
depends solely on the values of G at the
points r(b) and r(a), and is thus
independent of the path between them.
For this reason, a line integral of a
conservative vector field is called path
independent.

Applications

The line integral has many uses in physics.

For example, the work done on a particle
traveling on a curve C inside a force field
represented as a vector field F is the line
integral of F on C.[3]
Flow across a curve
For a vector field ,
F(x, y) = (P(x, y), Q(x, y)), the line integral
across a curve C ⊂ U, also called the flux
integral, is defined in terms of a piecewise
smooth parametrization r: [a,b] → C,
r(t) = (x(t), y(t)), as:

Here ⋅ is the dot product, and

is the
clockwise perpendicular of the velocity
vector .
The flow is computed in an oriented
sense: the curve C has a specified forward
direction from r(a) to r(b), and the flow is
counted as positive when F(r(t)) is on the
clockwise side of the forward velocity
vector r'(t).

Complex line integral

In complex analysis, the line integral is
defined in terms of multiplication and
addition of complex numbers. Suppose U
is an open subset of the complex plane C,
f : U → C is a function, and is a
curve of finite length, parametrized by
γ: [a,b] → L, where γ(t) = x(t) + iy(t). The
line integral

may be defined by subdividing the interval

[a, b] into a = t0 < t1 < ... < tn = b and
considering the expression

The integral is then the limit of this

Riemann sum as the lengths of the
subdivision intervals approach zero.

If the parametrization γ is continuously

differentiable, the line integral can be
evaluated as an integral of a function of a
real variable:

When L is a closed curve (initial and final

points coincide), the line integral is often
denoted sometimes referred
to in engineering as a cyclic integral.

The line integral with respect to the

conjugate complex differential is
defined[4] to be
The line integrals of complex functions
can be evaluated using a number of
techniques. The most direct is to split into
real and imaginary parts, reducing the
problem to evaluating two real-valued line
integrals. The Cauchy integral theorem
may be used to equate the line integral of
an analytic function to the same integral
over a more convenient curve. It also
implies that over a closed curve enclosing
a region where f(z) is analytic without
singularities, the value of the integral is
simply zero, or in case the region includes
singularities, the residue theorem
computes the integral in terms of the
singularities. This also implies the path
independence of complex line integral for
analytic functions.

Example

Consider the function f(z) = 1/z, and let the

contour L be the counterclockwise unit
circle about 0, parametrized by z(t) = eit
with t in [0, 2π] using the complex
exponential. Substituting, we find:
This is a typical result of Cauchy's integral
formula and the residue theorem.

Relation of complex line integral and

line integral of vector field

Viewing complex numbers as 2-

dimensional vectors, the line integral of a
complex-valued function has real
and complex parts equal to the line
integral and the flux integral of the vector
field corresponding to the conjugate
function Specifically, if
parametrizes L, and
corresponds to the
vector field
then:

By Cauchy's theorem, the left-hand integral

is zero when is analytic (satisfying
the Cauchy–Riemann equations) for any
smooth closed curve L. Correspondingly,
by Green's theorem, the right-hand

integrals are zero when is

irrotational (curl-free) and incompressible