What is the Solution to this Tricky Inverse FT Integral?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a complex integral arising in the context of an inverse Fourier transform related to smectic liquid crystals. Participants explore potential simplifications and interpretations of the integral, as well as the use of Mathematica for obtaining solutions.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Mathematical reasoning

Main Points Raised

  • One participant presents a challenging integral and expresses difficulty in finding a solution, noting its relevance to a Green's function problem.
  • Another participant suggests rewriting the integral in a more readable form and mentions that Mathematica provides a single integral expression in terms of RootSums.
  • A request is made for a clearer explanation of RootSums, as the Mathematica output is not easily interpretable for the original poster.
  • A further participant provides a detailed explanation of how RootSums work, including the interpretation of the syntax and the process of substituting roots into the function.
  • One participant acknowledges the complexity of the solution involving many terms but expresses gratitude for the clarification provided.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants appear to agree on the complexity of the integral and the utility of Mathematica in obtaining a solution, but there is no consensus on a definitive solution or simplification of the original integral.

Contextual Notes

The discussion highlights the challenges of interpreting complex mathematical outputs from software and the need for further simplification before the integral can be applied in broader research contexts.

skrieger
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I have a tricky integral of the form

∫∫[(L^4)((k_z)^2 + (k_p)^2)^2]/[(L^4)((k_z)^2 + (k_p)^2))^4 + (k_p)^2] * e^(i*k_z*z)*e^(i*k_p*cos(θ-θ_k))*dk_z*dk_p

which is arising in an inverse Fourier transform. I know that integrals somewhat like this appear in smectic liquid crystals but I can't find a solution offhand. It's also one of those things where Mathematica churns and spits out some unreadable nonsense.

Any ideas? No numerics please this is in relation to a Green's fn problem so there is guaranteed to be an analytic solution. Also if anyone thinks this could somehow be simplified by the convolution theorem I'm all ears.

The above is kind of hard to read so I've attached the integral as .png

-Ski
 

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I got an idea. Why not make the notation easier to read? Looks like you have:

[tex]\iint \frac{(x^2+y^2)^2}{a(x^2+y^2)^4+y^2}e^{ixz}e^{iyk}dxdy[/tex]

Is that correct?

Ok, Mathematica does return a single integral expression for that in terms of RootSums. It's completely readable if you know how to interpret the RootSums although it is extremely complex. If that can help you, I could explain how to interpret them.
 
Last edited:
Yes, I could use a different explanation for the RootSums, the one Mathematica gives doesn't help me much. The goal is to reduce this to as simple a form as possible because it still needs to be expressed as part of a larger vector field and differentiated, etc., before it will be useful in my research.
 
Let's look at a simple one:


[tex] \begin{align*}<br /> \int \frac{1}{x^5+11 x+1}dx &=<br /> -\text{RootSum}\left[1+11 \text{$\#$1}+\text{$\#$1}^5\&,\frac{\text{Log}[1-\text{$\#$1}]}{11+5 \text{$\#$1}^4}\&\right]\\ &+\text{RootSum}\left[1+11 \text{$\#$1}+\text{$\#$1}^5\&,\frac{\text{Log}[3-\text{$\#$1}]}{11+5 \text{$\#$1}^4}\&\right]<br /> \label{eq:}<br /> \end{align*}[/tex]


The RootSum represents a sum of a function over the zeros of a polynomial. The syntax uses "pure functions" using the "#1" as place holders for the variable. So the construct:

1+11#1+#1^5

is to be interpreted as z^5+11z+1 and we want to compute the zeros of z^5+11z+1=0 and then substitute those zeros into the second argument of the RootSum which is also a pure function, and sum them. For example, the first one is:

[tex]\frac{\text{Log}[1-\text{$\#$1}]}{11+5 \text{$\#$1}^4}[/tex]

So say the first root is z_0, then the first term of the sum would be:

[tex]\frac{\log(1-z_0)}{11+5 z_0^4}[/tex]

We can write in general:

[tex]\text{RootSum}\left[1+11 \text{$\#$1}+\text{$\#$1}^5\&,\frac{\text{Log}[1-\text{$\#$1}]}{11+5 \text{$\#$1}^4}\&\right]=\sum_{z^5+11z+1=0} \frac{\log(1-z_n)}{11+5 z_n^4}[/tex]


Here's a Mathematica function you can use if you wish which accepts a RootSum and returns the sum of the RootSum terms:

Code:
mySolution[rs_] := 
 Module[{mysystem, thepoly, theeqn, thevals, thesols},
  mysystem = rs /. RootSum[val___, ans_] :> {val, ans};
  thepoly = mysystem[[1]];
  theeqn = thepoly[y] == 0;
  thevals = y /. Solve[theeqn, y];
  Plus @@ mysystem[[2]] /@ thevals
  ]
 
Ok, that makes sense. A ridiculous amount of terms, but that happens sometimes. Thanks!
 

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