A question on asymptotic expansion for erf function.

  • Context:
  • Thread starter Thread starter Alone
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Expansion Function
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
1 reply · 3K views
Alone
Messages
57
Reaction score
0
I've got the next question which I just want to see if I got it right, and if not then do correct me.

we have [math]erf(x)=\frac{2}{\sqrt \pi} \int_{0}^{x} e^{-t^2} dt[/math]

and I want to find an asymptotic expansion of this function when [math]x\rightarrow \infty[/math].

So here's what I have done:

[math]erf(x)=\frac{2}{\sqrt \pi} \int_{0}^{\infty} e^{-t^2}dt - \int_{x}^{\infty} e^{-t^2} dt = 1 +\int_{\frac{1}{x}}^{0} e^{-\frac{1}{\xi ^2}}\frac{d\xi}{\xi ^2}[/math]

where in my last step I used the next change of variables: [math]\xi=\frac{1}{t}[/math].
Now, I am kind of stuck here, I mean [math]\xi[/math] is smaller than [math]\frac{1}{x}\rightarrow 0[/math], but I cannot expand [math]e^{-\frac{1}{\xi ^2}}[/math] with a power seris in [math]\frac{1}{\xi^2}[/math] so what to do now?

Thanks (the question appears in Murray's asymptotic anaysis page 27, question 2).
 
Physics news on Phys.org