View Full Version : Integration of incomplete gamma function
architect
Jan28-11, 03:29 AM
Hi,
I am interested in performing the following integration:
\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\Gamma\left[k,\frac{x+u}{v}\right]e^{-\frac{(x-m)^2}{2\sigma ^2}}dx
.
I would appreciate anyone's help. I have been trying to do it in Mathematica but it runs out of time returning the same integral.
Thanks in advance.
Alex
jasonRF
Jan29-11, 09:10 AM
is k and integer? If so, then the incomplete gamma function is a polynomial times an exponential:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incomplete_gamma_function
so you just complete the square in the exponent and you have a finite sum of moments of a Gaussian, which are easy to look up
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution
Of course this will be very messy to write out, and at the end you will have a finite sum of confluent hypergeometric functions (which may not be useful to you at all) but it is doable. Nicer forms may be possible, too.
For arbitrary k this is really hard, I think.
good luck,
jason
jason
architect
Jan29-11, 03:01 PM
Thanks, your comment was helpful about the moment generating function of a Gaussian.
k is an integer in my case. I will give it a try.
Best Regards,
Alex
architect
Jan30-11, 10:27 AM
I tried to do what you suggested, but I am not sure how to proceed in completing the square. In case, k is an integer we get the polynomial as you said times e^{-x+u/v} . The other part of the integrand is a Gaussian exponent. Therefore, I do not see how to proceed especially since the moment of a Gaussian is obtained via the Fourier transform. The first exponent in my case is not complex.
Can I approximate the upper incomplete Gamma function \Gamma[k,\frac{x+u}{v}] in some other way in order to then be able to perform the integration?
Thanks again.
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