Calculus – Is It Possible to Integrate Using Undergraduate Methods?

calculusindefinite-integralsintegrationrational-functions

I was doing a calculus problem and got to this final integral: $$\int\limits_{0}^{1} \frac{x^2 – 2x + 3}{x^4 – x^3 + x^2 – x + 1} \ dx.$$ Calculators are supposed to be used for these problems, so I just input the final integral into my calculator and got the result. However, I wondered if there is a method to integrate it manually.

For simplicity, let's remove the limits and focus on the indefinite form. The nominator suggests a $(x-1)$ dummy variable, so I tried rewriting the integrand in terms of $u = (x-1)$ and got: $$\int \frac{u^2 + 2}{u^4 + 3u^3 + 4u^2 + 2u + 1} \ du$$

This still doesn't seem to lead to any well-known forms that I'm aware of. My question is, is it possible to integrate this using knowledge of undergraduate calculus, and if yes, I'd like to hear some directions to tackle it. Thank you!

Best Answer

Since$$x^4-x^3+x^2-x+1=\frac{x^5+1}{x+1},$$the roots of $x^4-x^3+x^2-x+1$ are the fifth roots of $-1$ other than $-1$. That is, they are $e^{\pi i/5}$, $e^{3\pi i/5}$, $e^{7\pi i/5}$, and $e^{9\pi i/5}$; besides, $e^{9\pi i/5}=\overline{e^{\pi i/5}}$ and $e^{7\pi i/5}=\overline{e^{3\pi i/5}}$. So\begin{align}x^4-x^3+x^2-x+1&=\left(x-e^{\pi i/5}\right)\left(x-e^{9\pi i/5}\right)\left(x-e^{3\pi i/5}\right)\left(x-e^{7\pi i/5}\right)\\&=\left(x^2-2\cos\left(\frac\pi5\right)x+1\right)\left(x^2-2\cos\left(\frac{3\pi}5\right)x+1\right)\\&=\left(x^2-\frac{1+\sqrt5}2x+1\right)\left(x^2-\frac{1-\sqrt5}2x+1\right).\end{align}So, you can write$$\frac{x^2-2x+3}{x^4-x^3+x^2-x+1}\quad\text{as}\quad\frac{Ax+B}{x^2-\frac{1+\sqrt5}2x+1}+\frac{Cx+D}{x^2-\frac{1-\sqrt5}2x+1}.$$In order to get the coefficients $A$, $B$, $C$, and $D$, you sum these two fractions on the right and the asserting that this sum is equal to the expression that you want to integrate, you solve the system$$\left\{\begin{array}{l}B+D=3\\A+\frac{\sqrt{5}-1}2B+C-\frac{1+\sqrt5}2D=-2\\\frac{\sqrt{5}-1}2A+B-\frac{\sqrt{5}+1}2C+D=1\\A+C=0.\end{array}\right.$$You will get that$$A=-\frac2{\sqrt5},\ B=\frac{15-\sqrt5}{10},\ C=\frac2{\sqrt5},\text{ and }D=\frac{15+\sqrt5}{10}.$$It follows from this that\begin{multline}\int\frac{x^2-2x+3}{x^4-x^3+x^2-x+1}\,\mathrm dx=\\=-\frac{\log\left(2x^2-\left(1+\sqrt5\right)x+2\right)}{\sqrt5}+\frac15\left(\sqrt5-1\right)\sqrt{2\left(5+\sqrt5\right)}\arctan\left(\frac{4x-\sqrt5-1}{\sqrt{10-2 \sqrt5}}\right)+\\+\frac{\log \left(2x^2-\left(1-\sqrt5\right)x+2\right)}{\sqrt5}+\frac25\sqrt{2\left(5+\sqrt5\right)} \arctan\left(\frac{4x+\sqrt{5}-1}{\sqrt{2\left(5+\sqrt5\right)}}\right).\end{multline}