Trigonometric integral / Complex Analysis

irycio
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Homework Statement



Calculate the integral \int\limits_0^{\infty} \cos{x^2} dx

This is the exercise from complex analysis chapter, so I guess I should change it into a complex integral somehow and than integrate. I just don't know how, since neither substitution cos(x^2) = Re{e^ix^2} nor cos(x^2)=1/2(e^ix^2 + e^-(ix^2)) works.

Thanks in advance for your help :)
 
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Do you know the Gaussian integral
\int_{-\infty}^\infty e^{-a x^2} \, dx = \sqrt{\frac{\pi}{a}}

It formally applies to all a for which Re(a) > 0, although as far as I am aware it continues to hold when Re(a) goes to 0, if Im(a) is non-zero, i.e.
\lim_{\epsilon \downarrow 0} \int_{-\infty}^\infty e^{-(\epsilon + i a) x^2} \, dx = \sqrt{\frac{\pi}{ ia}} = (1 - i) \sqrt{\frac{\pi}{a}}
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
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