# How do we integrate x^2/(e^x - 1) from xg to infinity?

How do we integrate this function? It is possible if the range is from 0 to infinity, but from xg to infinity? This equation comes from page 512 of the 1961 paper by William Shockley and Hans J. Queisser.

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Delta2
Homework Helper
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This integral doesn't have a closed form. You can check the indefinite integral at wolfram https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=integral+x^2/(e^x-1)+dx
However :
If ##x_g## is larger than 1, then you can approximate the original integral by the integral $$\int_{x_g}^{\infty}\frac{x^2}{e^x}dx$$ which has a closed form and it is equal to $$\frac{x_g^2+2x_g+2}{e^{x_g}}$$ (you can compute it by doing integration by parts).

The farthest away is ##x_g## from 1, the better this approximation is. For example I found by experimenting at wolfram that for ##x_g\geq 5## the approximation agrees to the original value (which wolframs computes with numerical integration) in the first 3 significant digits.

Max Loo Pin Mok, bhobba, DrClaude and 1 other person
Thanks, I'll look at the results from Wolfram Alpha.

Delta2