Contributions from all the saddle points or not

asymptotics

Consider the following integral:
$$
I(t)=\int_{\mathbb{R}}e^{itp(z)}dz
$$

where $p(z)$ is a real-valued polynomial. And suppose it has both real and non-real critical points, how to find the asymptotics when $t$ goes to positive infinity. Do we only need to consider the real critical points(i.e. stationary point)? If not, then when we choose the steepest descent contour, do we need path all the critical points, or only need to find a contour (homotopic to the real line) passing some of the saddle points?

A specifical case: take $p=(z+1)(z-1)(z+i)(z-i)$.

Correction: Specifical case take $p'(z)=(z+1)(z-1)(z+i)(z-i)$, so the critical points are $\pm 1,\pm i$

Best Answer

In your example, the only critical point of $p$ is $z = 0$. $\operatorname{Re} i p$ is constant on the lines $u v = 0$ and $v = \pm u$, dividing the plane into eight octants, and $\operatorname{Im} i p$ is constant on the bisectors of the octants. The goal is to prove that the integral is asymptotically equivalent to the integral over a small part of a bisector around $z = 0$, then any other critical points will be irrelevant.

For that, you need to choose the bisectors of those angles inside which the contour can be deformed to the real line while $\operatorname{Re} i p$ remains less than its value at $z = 0$. There is only one pair of angles that fits the requirement.

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