Saturday 16 July 2016

calculus - Evaluation of $lim_{n to infty} int_{0}^infty frac{1}{1+x^n} dx$



$$L=\lim_{n \to \infty} \int_{0}^\infty \frac{1}{1+x^n} dx$$
$$\phi(x)=\lim_{n \to \infty}\frac{1}{1+x^n}$$



So I was just playing around with $\int_{0}^\infty \frac{1}{1+x^2} dx $ and it equals to $\frac{\pi}{2}$. So I thought if this integral converges then higher powers of x it must also. And for that matter what is the limit as power becomes infinitely large?




1) I tried graphing $\phi(x)$ and I have a at x=0 the function equals 1 but it also equals 1 for all $x \in [0,1)$



2) And at 1 it equals 1/2 and it equals 0 for, $x \in (1,\infty)$



Based on 1) and 2) I have a hunch that $L=1$.



Any rigorous proofs?
Thanks in advance. And tell me about this question's or this type's formal name because I didn't know what to search on google.


Answer





I thought it would be instructive to present a way forward that relies only on elementary calculus tools. To that end, we now proceed.







Enforcing the substitution $x\mapsto x^{1/n}$, we see that for $n>1$



$$\begin{align}
\int_0^\infty \frac1{1+x^n}\,dx&=\frac1n \int_0^\infty \frac{x^{1/n}}{x(1+x)}\,dx\tag 1
\end{align}$$




Writing the integral on the right-hand side of $(1)$ as the sum



$$\begin{align}
\int_0^\infty \frac{x^{1/n}}{x(1+x)}\,dx&=\int_0^1 \frac{x^{1/n}}{x(1+x)}\,dx+\int_1^\infty \frac{x^{1/n}}{x(1+x)}\,dx\tag2
\end{align}$$



and enforcing the substitution $x\mapsto 1/x$ in the second integral on the right-hand side of $(2)$ reveals



$$\begin{align}

\int_0^\infty \frac1{1+x^n}\,dx&=\frac1n \int_0^1 \frac{x^{1/n}+x^{1-1/n}}{x(1+x)}\,dx\tag3
\end{align}$$



Next, using partial fraction expansion, we find that



$$\begin{align}
\int_0^\infty \frac1{1+x^n}\,dx&=\color{blue}{\frac1n\int_0^1 \frac{x^{1/n}+x^{1-1/n}}{x}\,dx}-\frac1n\int_0^1 \frac{x^{1/n}+x^{1-1/n}}{1+x}\,dx\\\\
&=\color{blue}{1+\frac1{n-1}}-\frac1n\int_0^1 \frac{x^{1/n}+x^{1-1/n}}{1+x}\,dx\tag4
\end{align}$$




Inasmuch as the integral on the right-hand side of $(4)$ is trivially seen to be bounded in absolute value by $2$, we find that



$$\int_0^\infty \frac1{1+x^n}\,dx=1+O\left(\frac1n\right)$$






Taking the limit as $n\to \infty$, yields the coveted limit



$$\bbox[5px,border:2px solid #C0A000]{\lim_{n\to \infty}\int_0^\infty \frac1{1+x^n}\,dx=1}$$








TOOLS USED: Elementary Integral Theorems, Substitution, Partial Fraction Expansion



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